Britain's Robin Cook dies on Scottish hike

LONDON, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- A former British Cabinet minister and critic of the Iraq war, Robin Cook, has died while taking a walk with his wife, the BBC reports.

Fifty-nine-year-old Cook was praised by leaders on all sides of the British political spectrum after he was pronounced dead at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. No cause of death was announced.

Cook and his wife Gaynor were walking in north-west Scotland.

In a statement, Prime Minister Tony Blair, a fellow member of the Labor Party, called him "an outstanding, extraordinary talent." Conservative Michael Howard called his death a "great loss," and Liberal Democrat Charles Kennedy called him a "good and gifted man."

Cook was a member of Blair's Cabinet until March 2003, when he quit in protest of Blair's cooperation in the Iraq war.