Chinese President Hu Jintao offered condolence to Zhang Weilie, a veteran diplomat who died of illness on April 25 at the age of 95.

Other senior officials who expressed condolences include Zeng Qinghong, a member of the standing committee of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee.

Zhang, a native of South China's Guangdong Province, joined the Communist Party of China in 1937. He was once ambassadors to Iraq, Morocco, Mongolia and Thailand in the 1960s and 1970s.

Zhang took the post of vice chairman of the Standing Committee of Guangdong Provincial People's Congress before he retired in 1985.

Source: Xinhua