TALLINN (AFP) -- Former Estonian president Lennart Meri, a leading political figure in the Baltic states after they won independence from Moscow in 1991, has died at the age of 76, the president's office said.

Meri died at 03:40 A.M. (0140 GMT) Tuesday in a hospital in Tallinn "after a long and serious illness", the president's office said in a statement.

The former writer and filmmaker had undergone an operation in August last year for brain cancer.

Meri served two terms as president of Estonia, from 1992 to 2001.

Before the restoration of Estonian independence, he set up a non-governmental Estonian Institute in 1988, creating Estonian "information centers" in Western capitals which were turned into embassies representing the former Soviet republic when it regained independence in 1991.

He was foreign minister from 1990 to 1992 and was instrumental in negotiating diplomatic recognition for Estonia after the failed coup in Moscow in August 1991. Before entering politics, Meri was a writer and filmmaker. Some of his works were banned in Soviet times. He traveled extensively in the former Soviet Union and wrote travel books.

Born in Tallinn in 1929, the son of a diplomat and Shakespeare translator, he left Estonia at an early age and studied abroad, attending nine different schools.

The Estonian flag will be flown at half mast today.

"It was the request of the Meri family to have the memorial day tomorrow, as they wished today to be marked, as planned, as the Day of the Estonian Language," the government said.