Washington: US evangelist Billy Graham, who counselled Presidents and preached to millions across the world from his native North Carolina to communist North Korea during his 70 years on the pulpit, died on Wednesday at the age of 99, a spokesman said.

Graham died at 1300GMT at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, according to Jeremy Blume, a spokesman for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

With his steely features and piercing blue eyes, Graham was a powerful figure when he preached in his prime, roaming the stage and hoisting a Bible as he declared Jesus Christ to be the only solution to humanity's problems.

According to his ministry, he preached to more people than anyone else in history, reaching hundreds of millions of people.

Graham became the de facto White House chaplain to several US Presidents, most famously Richard Nixon. He also met scores of world leaders and was the first noted evangelist to take his message behind the Iron Curtain.

"He was probably the dominant religious leader of his era," said William Martin, author of A Prophet With Honor: The Billy Graham Story."No more than one or two popes, perhaps one or two other people, came close to what he achieved."

In a rare trip away from his home in his later years, Graham had celebrated his 95th birthday on November 7, 2013, at a hotel in Asheville, North Carolina, where some 800 guests, including Republican politician Sarah Palin, business magnates Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump and TV hostess Kathie Lee Gifford paid tribute.

In his prime Graham had a thunderous, quick-burst speaking style that earned him the nickname "God's Machine Gun." Through his "Crusades for Christ," Graham sowed fields of devotion across the American heartland that would become fertile ground for the growth of the religious Right's political movement. His influence was fuelled by an organisation that carefully planned his religious campaigns. Reuters