TEL AVIV, Israel - Former Israeli President Ezer Weizman, a political moderate who pioneered contacts with Palestinian leaders and helped bring about the Jewish state's first peace treaty with an Arab country, has died. He was 80.

Weizman, who was president from 1993 to 2000, had suffered from respiratory infections in recent months and was repeatedly hospitalized. He died shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday at his home in the northern Israeli resort town of Caesarea, according to a statement by Weizman's successor, President Moshe Katsav.

In three decades in political life, he made a highly public transition from hawk to dove, saying the Jews had to learn to "share this part of the world" with the Arabs.

As defense minister in 1979, he was instrumental in negotiating Israel's peace treaty with Egypt.

His bluntness and sharp-tongue often got him into trouble with other politicians who accused him of overstepping his authority.