Americans bid final farewell to Reagan

America on Friday bid a fond farewell to Ronald Reagan. The funeral rites were as desired by the 40th president himself and took place at the Washington National Cathedral.

In his tribute, President George W Bush described Reagan as "a great man, a historic leader and a national treasure". He then paid a silent homage before the former president's coffin. Several world leaders are attending the funeral.

Reagan's body lay in state on black velvet-covered catafalque that once bore the casket of President Abraham Lincoln.

The world leaders will take a flight back to California for a sunset burial at the Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley.

Public viewing of the late president's remains, which had lain in state at the US Capitol Rotunda since Wednesday evening, ended at 9:30 am (1900 IST) after more than 104,000 people had passed through to pay their last respects.

An hour later, the coffin was carried down the Capitol steps following a 21-gun salute and was transferred to a motorcade to begin the slow, four-and-a-half-mile(eight-kilometre) drive in light drizzle to the cathedral.

Just before the departure ceremony, Reagan's widow, Nancy Reagan, who has been the focus of much of the public emotion triggered by his death, entered the Rotunda and kissed the flag-draped casket while whispering some words to her late husband.

According to Reagan family spokeswoman Joanne Drake, Reagan had been working on the details of his own funeral arrangements since 1981, the year he took office.

The 4,000 invited guests at the cathedral were to hear a reading from Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, as well as tributes from Bush, his father, former president George Bush, and the former British and Canadian prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher and Brian Mulroney.

Among those gathered at the cathedral were Britain's Prince Charles and Prime Minister Tony Blair, German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Cold War veterans included former Soviet leader  Mikhail Gorbachev and former Polish president Lech Walesa, who hailed Reagan as the man who did most to free his country from Soviet domination.

"We owe him our liberty," Walesa wrote in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal.

All four surviving former US presidents -- Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and the elder Bush -- were also present.

Agencies