"Over the past few days her condition worsened. This morning, there was a further deterioration, and at 1:55 p.m., Leah Rabin died," said Dr. Dan Oppenheim, director of the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva. He added that she had lost consciousness yesterday morning. Members of her family, including daughter MK Dalia Rabin-Pelosoff, were at her side, he said.

A hospital spokesman said that the cause of death was complications of melanoma, the often fatal skin cancer.

The primary tumor had metastasized to her lungs, causing general organ failure.

Earlier this month, Rabin suffered a mild heart attack, but this was not the cause of death, said Oppenheim, who added that she had known about the cancer for over a year.

Rabin had been quite secretive about her ordeal. Initially, she went abroad for consultation, and perhaps treatment in New York's Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center, and then was treated at Sheba Hospital, Tel Hashomer. Three months ago, she followed her oncologist after his move to the Rabin Medical Center.

Word of her death drew reactions both outside and inside the country. US President Bill Clinton said that he and his wife Hillary "were deeply saddened" to learn of her death.

"We have a lost a dear friend, and the Middle East has lost a friend of peace. But the work to which she and Yitzhak dedicated their lives must and will continue. Our prayers are with the Rabin family and with the people of Israel," said a statement released by Clinton.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat said he was deeply saddened by Leah Rabin's death.

"God, it is so sad to lose this lady, wife of my partner in making the peace of the brave. I am really sad," Arafat told Reuters.

Leah's death came just three days after the fifth anniversary of Yitzhak's assassination. Due to her condition, she was unable to attend events that marked the occasion this year.

The Rabin family said that Leah's death at the conclusion of the commemorations "signifies the connection between the murder and her tragic death," adding that "until her last moments, she fought his battle. Dalia, Yuval, Yonatan, Noa, Michael, Omer, Tali, and Avi will continue with courage to carry the flame of both Yitzhak and Leah," said the statement.

She grew up in Tel Aviv. At 15, she met her future husband, Yitzhak, for the first time. They were married during a lull in the fighting during the War of Independence.

Otherwise considered a homemaker who remained out of the spotlight, she was thrust into dubious notoriety in 1977 with the disclosure that she had held a dollar bank account (such accounts were then illegal for Israeli citizens) in Washington, where Yitzhak had served as ambassador a few years earlier. That led to her husband's resignation as prime minister, a post which he had assumed in 1974, and to which he would return in 1992.

Many considered it indicative of their close relationship that Yitzhak's final words just before his assassination, as he left the peace rally in Kikar Malchei Yisrael (later renamed Kikar Rabin) were, "Where's Leah?"

Janine Zacharia and Judy Siegel contributed to this report.