By Agencies

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Charlie Wilson, the former US congressman famous for funding Afghanistan's mujahidin fighters in their war against the Soviet Union, has died at the age of 76.

Hospital officials in Texas said Wilson died after suffering a heart attack on Wednesday.

Wilson served as a Democratic congressman for Texas from 1973 to 1996 and was a member of the US House Appropriations Committee, which helped secure money for weapons for the Afghan mujahidin during its war with the Soviet Union.

Although that funding helped turn the tide of the war, leading to the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan and speeding up the collapse of the USSR, Wilson was unable to keep the money flowing.

"People like me didn't fulfil our responsibilities once the war was over," he told the Associated Press news agency in a September 2001 interview.

"We allowed this vacuum to occur in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which enraged a lot of people. That was as much my fault as it was a lot of others'."

Known for his high-living, party-going lifestyle, Wilson developed the nickname "Good Time Charlie" and his activities were chronicled in the Hollywood movie, Charlie Wilson's War, with actor Tom Hanks playing the lead role.

No longer fun

After serving 12 terms in the US congress, Wilson left politics in 1996, saying he no longer found it any fun.

His death comes just weeks after he attended the dedication of the Charlie Wilson chair for Pakistan Studies at the University of Texas in Austin.a statement commenting on news of Wilson's death, Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, said the former congressman had "led a life that was oversized even by Hollywood's standards".

"After the Soviets left, Charlie kept fighting for the Afghan people and warned against abandoning that traumatised country to its fate - a warning we should have heeded then, and should remember today."

For his part, Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said Wilson had been "an extraordinary patriot whose life showed, once more, that one brave and determined person can alter the course of history.

"As the world now knows, his efforts and exploits helped repel an invader, liberate a people, and bring the Cold War to a close."