ATLANTA (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter's attorney general,
Griffin B. Bell, has died, according to Bell's law firm. Bell was 90.

Bell was being treated at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta for complications due to pancreatic cancer. Bell had battled kidney disease for years.

Bell died at 9:40 a.m. Monday, said Les Zucke, a spokesman for
Atlanta law firm King & Spalding.

Carter said he was "deeply saddened'' by Bell's death and
called him a ``trusted and enduring public figure.''

Carter's choice of Bell, a longtime friend, as attorney general was considered the most controversial of his Cabinet picks after the 1976 election.

At the time, the NAACP and other civil rights groups complained Bell, as a federal judge, didn't force Southern schools to integrate quickly enough. But Carter called Bell's civil rights record superb, and many black Georgians, including U.N. ambassador designate Andrew Young, came forward to support him.

Bell served just two years at the Justice Department, returning to his Atlanta law firm. But Bell remained a key adviser to Carter.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)