President Barack Obama had told members of Holbrooke's family at a diplomatic holiday reception at the State Department just hours earlier: "America is more secure and the world is a safer place because of the work of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.
Earlier, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Canada that Holbrooke, who brokered the Dayton Accords that ended the Bosnian war, remained in stable but "very critical condition."
After a career spanning nearly 50 years at the pinnacle of US diplomacy, Holbrooke fell ill on Friday, during a meeting at the State Department.
A hard-nosed trouble shooter, Holbrooke is perhaps best known for brokering the 1995 peace agreement that ended three years of war in Bosnia.
As a special US envoy in the current Afghan conflict, he has had the daunting task of pushing Kabul and Islamabad to work together against resurgent Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Obama called him "a towering figure in American foreign policy, a critical member of my Afghanistan and Pakistan team, and a tireless public servant who has won the admiration of the American people and people around the world."
His health problems come at a critical time for US policy in the region, with the administration due to conduct a review of its troop surge in Afghanistan and campaign against the [...]
