PARIS. Apr 3: Graham Greene, whose novels of in triguc. suspense and mystery captivated readers for a half century, died early Wednesday at his home tn Geneva. Switzerland. his French pub Usher Robert Laffont said He was 86

The cause of death was not immediately clear

lx>ng regarded as one of the English-speaking world s greatest novelists. Greene combined a passion for politics. exoticism and religion tn his long career

Greene, who also had a home tn Antibes on the French Riviera. is the author oi such acclaimed novels as "The Power and the Glory." The Third Man" and The Quiet American." He eventually turned many of his stories into successful movie scripts.

The British-born Greene travelled widely and many of his most successful novels had a political thrust.

Critics said his novels sought to convey a sense of morality and hope to man. whom he saw as plagued by frustration and despair. But Greene, a Roman. Catholic convert, viewed many of his novels as "mere entertainments" and labeled them as such.

Yet it was his unique craft manship in creating atmo sphere and characters that won his widest acclaim.

Greene's works combined elements of the spy thriller and the psychological drama whose heroes acknowledge their sins and thus achieve salvation.

For millions of readers his name was synonymous with action, intrigue, suspense and mystery. Greene himself did not think he had talent, just patience and a penchant for Jiard work. Greene would spend months on location. painstakingly gathering material for a future novel, but claimed his own life lacked the colourful adventures of his characters

*1 have spent almost as much time with imaginary characters as with real men and women.' he wrote in his 1971 autobiography

Nor could he remember anecdotes about his real friends. The only stories which 1 faintly remember are the stories I have written."he said.

The stories were compelling parables of the damned, born "out of my own sense of failure and boredom." he said

Fits characters, as the critic Michael Mewshaw put it. "are strong because they know they are weak, good because they are sinners."

Greene turned many of his stories into movie scripts, including The Third Man.” "Our Man in Havana" and "The Comedians'

Graham Greene was born in Berkhamsted. England, on Oct. 2. 1904, His father. Charles Henry Greene, was headmaster of Berkhamsted School, one of Britain's most prestigious boarding schools for boys

Graham and his younger brother, later Sir Hugh Greene, future publisher and head of the British Broadcasting Corporation, were educated under their father's watchful eye at Berkhamsted and later at Oxford University,

In "A Sort of Life," the first volume of his autobiography, he wrote extensively of his fears — including birds, moths, witches, water and cars —. that would haunt him throughout his life, despite undergoing psychoanalysis at 10.

He also explained his feeling like a double agent.' as fostered by his split loyalties as student and headmaster's son.

Greene got hts first job on the staff of The Times of Ixtndon In 1926 , where he worked as a copyreader for four years. He Joined the Foreign Office during World War II.

. His first novel. "Babbling April.’ was published In 1925 He eventually published 24 novels, seven plays, five screenplays, numerous essays and children's books, and two volumes of his autobiograpliy

His International reputation was established by 1932 with the novel "Stamboul Train.' published in the United States as "Orient Express."

In 1982. Greene became a "cause eelebre" with JAccuse." a 25-page pamphlet tn English and French charging underworld corruption tn France at the highest police and government levels. The title was borrowed from the French writer Emile Zola

Though friends nominated him repeatedly for the Nobel literature prize, he never got the coveted award.

He never mastered the typewriter and wrote tn tong hand.