VATICAN CITY (AP) — Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the longtime Vatican diplomat and expert in interfaith relations who announced the election of Pope Francis to the world in 2013 with the famous phrase "habemus papam (we have a pope)," has died.

The Vatican said Tauran died Thursday at age 75. He had been in the United States, seeking treatment for Parkinson's disease, which he suffered for years but kept on with his globe-trotting diplomacy to improve the Vatican's relations with the Muslim world.

The French-born Tauran served in various Vatican embassies before being named chief Vatican archivist and then prefect of the Vatican office of interfaith relations.

As 'protodeacon' of the College of Cardinals, Tauran emerged on the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica on the rainy night of March 13, 2013, to announce Francis' election.