Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has expressed deep condolences on the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher due to a stroke on Monday.

"The President received report about it directly from foreign minister Marty Natalegawa and has expressed deep condolences. He has instructed the foreign minister to send deep condolences to her family as well as the British government," presidential spokesman Julian Adrin Pasha said when asked by phone for confirmation about the news.

The "Iron Lady" as she was often called had established one political generation in that country. She died at the age of 87 after suffering from a stroke, her spokesperson said.

Thatcher the only British woman prime minister governed from 1979 to 1990 and had never appeared in public in the past few years due to dementia.

She played several roles for the Western Block during the cold war against the Eastern Block spearheaded by Soviet Union.

Her market economic policy was very well known and identified by her name as "Thatcherism."

The war against Argentine over the Falkland (Malvinas) was one of the important events during her administration.

Thatcher was treated for a small surgery due to a problem in her bladder in December.

The former leader of Britain`s Conservative Party was the longest leader staying in the Downing Street in the 20th century.

Her daughter once said that her mother must be told many times to remind her that her husband had died in 2003.

She had been told to stop giving speeches by her doctor a decade ago after suffering from several strokes.

reporting by muhammad arief iskandar; editing by yoseph hariyadi

Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2013