New York, Dec 15 (DPA) UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday praised veteran US diplomat Richard Holbrooke as a "giant and legend in his time".

Holbrooke, US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan and the broker of the agreement that ended the Bosnian war, passed away Monday after undergoing surgery to repair an aortic tear.

Ban said he had written to Holbrooke's family to share his sadness because he had known him personally.

"His drive was immense," Ban said. "His desire to do good in the world was fierce, and he pursued all he set out to do with a resolution and tenacity that were second to none."

"He was big-hearted and outsized in every way, not least in his capacity for friendship and uncommon humanity," Ban wrote in his letter to the family.

Holbrooke was a US ambassador to the UN under president Bill Clinton and succeeded in raising awareness in the AIDS epidemic worldwide by insisting that UN resolutions contained measures to fight the disease.