LONDON - Sir Edward Heath, the prime minister who led England into what is now the European Union but lost the Conservative Party leadership to Margaret Thatcher, died Sunday. He was 89.

Heath, who governed England from 1970 to 1974, died at his home in the southern city of Salisbury.

A carpenter's son who broke the tradition of blue bloods leading the British Conservative Party, he was a born politician whose major achievement was to negotiate Britain's 1973 entry into the European Community. The entry into what became the European Union overturned years of resistance domestically and by France, which had vetoed Britain's entry in 1967.

Thatcher, who successfully challenged him for the party leadership in 1975, offered warm words for her former rival, saying he was a "political giant" and "in every sense the first modern Conservative leader."

"We are all in his debt," Thatcher said in a statement.

Heath came to power in 1970 pledging to end Britain's long cycle of post-World War II decline, but he was thwarted and, in the end, brought down by militant unions seeking higher pay.

Heath's funeral was scheduled for July 25 at the Salisbury Cathedral.