France honours its last veteran of World War I

FRANCE yesterday honoured its last World War I veteran, who died last week, and the other 8.4 million Frenchmen who fought in the conflict.

The day of tribute began with a Roman Catholic funeral Mmass attended by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, government ministers, soldiers and teary-eyed members of the family of Lazare Ponticelli, who died last Wednesday aged 110.

Born in Italy, Ponticelli was a French citizen for most of the past century. Worldwide, only a handful of veterans of the 1914-1918 war remain alive.