Count Otto Lambsdorff, a leading pro-market voice in West German governments who later helped to raise $5 billion to compensate Nazi-era slave labourers, has died aged 82, his Free Democrat party said yesterday.

Count Lambsdorff, whose ministerial career was ended by a party funding scandal in the 1980s, died in hospital in Bonn on Saturday. He was chairman of the pro-business FDP from 1988 to 1993 and since then had been party's honorary chairman.

"He had a tremendous influence on German economic policies for many years and will be remembered as one of the great personalities of our social market economy," said Chancellor Angela Merkel, who also praised his work to compensate people forced by the Nazis to work as slaves.

Count Lambsdorff, who lost a leg when he was 18 after a bombing attack near the end of World War II, had a long and controversial career in German coalition politics.

From 1977 to 1984 he was Economy Minister, first under Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of the Social Democrats and then Chancellor Helmut Kohl of the Christian Democrats.

After he was forced to resign in 1984 over the campaign contributions scandal, he remained a powerful figure in the FDP and his views on economic policy were widely respected.

Outside Germany he is perhaps best known for his efforts to compensate 1.66 million former slave labourers for their suffering under Hitler's regime.

Critics and admirers praised Count Lambsdorff for taking on a difficult job as the government's point man in 1999.