LONDON, Nov. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Former world rally champion Richard Burns of Britain has died of a brain tumour at the age of 34, reports said here on Saturday.

    Burns, who had been in a coma for some days, died in London's Wellington hospital on Friday evening, exactly on the fourth anniversary of his championship win with Subaru in 2001.

    Burns, the only Englishman who won the world rally champion, was diagnosed with the astrocytoma, a form of brain tumour, after blacking out at the wheel on his way to the British Rally in Wales in 2003.

    He was the overall runner-up in 1999 and 2000 and winner of 10 rounds of the world rally championship, had a course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy last year and in April this year underwent brain surgery. Enditem