After six days, US bids a final farewell

AMERICA bade farewell to Ronald Reagan yesterday in a majestic state funeral at Washington's National Cathedral.

Past and present world leaders lauded the former US president as a prophet of freedom and moral victor of the Cold War.

"Ronald Reagan believed... in the courage and triumph of free men and we believe it all the more because we saw that courage in him," said current US President George W Bush.

The ceremony capped six days of mourning and nostalgia for the 40th president of the US, who died last Saturday, aged 93, after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

"He won the Cold War, not only without firing a shot but also by inviting enemies out of their fortress and turning them into friends," former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said of her close ally and friend.

After the funeral, his body was taken to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and loaded aboard a presidential plane as a band played Going Home. It was to be flown back to California for a private sunset burial attended by family and special guests on the grounds of his presidential library just north of Los Angeles.

Celebrated by supporters as a champion of freedom and free enterprise, Reagan also provoked furious opposition during his 1981-1989 presidency. Critics accused him of building up massive budget deficits, cutting programmes for the poor and supporting hard-liners in Central America.

The one-time Hollywood star, known to millions as "the Gipper" after his favourite film role, had said goodbye to the American people in a moving letter revealing his illness in 1994.

"It has been 10 years since he said his own farewell, yet it is still very sad and hard to let him go," Mr Bush said.

Veterans of the Cold War were prominent at the funeral. Mrs Thatcher was in the congregation but her message was delivered on videotape since her health has become too fragile for public speaking.