Arafat's body heads towards Ramallah resting place

Yasser Arafat’s funeral service began with humble prayers today and ended with an almost triumphant procession, his wooden coffin set on a gun carriage and draped in the Palestinian flag, preceded by a military band in scarlet and followed by a crowd of presidents and kings.

After the high-security funeral rites, the Palestinian leader’s body was being flown to the West Bank to be placed in a tomb being built at the Ramallah compound where was kept a virtual prisoner in his final years.

Arafat’s controversial widow Suha and their nine-year-old daughter, Zahwa, cried as they watched the casket being carried to a waiting plane.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Jordanian King Abdullah, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah as well as Farouk Kaddoumi, the newly chosen leader of the Fatah organisation, and Mahmoud Abbas, head of the PLO executive committee, were among those in the front row of dignitaries trailing the casket down a closed-to-the public suburban street.

Ireland was represented by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern.

They ended their march at the military airport a short walk away, where Arafat’s body was flown out.

All media except state-run television were barred from the mosque and a tent where most dignitaries sat through the funeral prayers.

“He has served his people all his life, until he faced his God, with courage and honesty. Let us pray for his soul,” the Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar Mohammed Sayed Tantawi told the gathered dignitaries.

Throughout the ceremony Egyptian television played Koranic recitations, including a verse: “After hardship, ease.”

Arafat, aged 75, who died in a Paris hospital yesterday, was mourned by Palestinians at home and in refugee camps across the region who had hoped he would one day lead them back to Jerusalem, and by Arabs who had seen him as an inspiring leader.

Arab and Israeli authorities were taking steps to prevent any emotional outpouring from evolving into riots, and many countries declared official mourning periods for the Palestinian leader.

Harried preparations for Arafat’s grave also were being made in Ramallah, at the Palestinian headquarters where Arafat was a virtual prisoner in his final years.

Workers raked sand to level the ground today as they laid grey marble slabs around the base of the open, stone-lined, tomb.

The Palestinians consider the grave site temporary – a place for Arafat’s body until the day they hope they can honour his request to be buried in Jerusalem.

Flags flew at half staff in the compound, where Palestinian policemen rehearsed rifle drills for the ceremony.

After a traditional funeral prayer lasting only a couple of minutes, eight dark-suited pallbearers carried the casket out of the mosque and handed it to an Egyptian honour guard.

They placed it inside a silver hearse and drove away from the mosque the carriage stood motionless flanked by Egyptian honour guards.

The funeral was designed to prevent any outpouring of public emotion that could evolve into angry protests or merely show the late Palestinian leader as more popular than other Arab leaders.

Many Arabs have accused their own governments of doing too little to help the Palestinians through the latest uprising.

Egyptian authorities went out of their way to tell the public to steer clear of the suburban Cairo funeral.

The US embassy warned Americans to avoid areas where spontaneous protests might occur, including the downtown Tahrir Square, a traditional site of demonstrations.

From Cairo, Aarafat’s coffin was being flown to el-Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula where two Jordanian helicopters would then ferry the coffin and it accompanying delegation to Ramallah.

Arafat was to be buried in a concrete coffin before sunset.