Prince Rainier laid to rest

Kings, queens and presidents bade farewell to Monaco's Prince Rainier yesterday at a funeral service in the cathedral where he married former Hollywood actress Grace Kelly.

Eight palace guards slowly carried Prince Rainier's coffin, draped in Monaco's red and white flag, from the royal palace to the steps of the cathedral where he wed Princess Grace in 1956 and where she was buried after she died in a car crash in 1982.

Six other officers then carried the coffin into the cathedral, where family members lit candles to Prince Rainier, who died on April 6 at the age of 81 of lung, heart and kidney problems.

Princesses Caroline and Stephanie wept openly as they walked behind the coffin alongside their brother Prince Albert, who will succeed his father as monarch.

French President Jacques Chirac and King Juan Carlos of Spain sat beside each other in the cathedral at a ceremony attended by about 60 kings, queens and princes, presidents and their representatives.

"In this same cathedral 49 years ago, almost to the day, he married her Royal Highness Princess Grace who disappeared from our view too soon," Bernard Barsi, the archbishop of Monaco, said in a homily.

"With the princess he made an exceptional couple, united by heart and mind," he said of the US-born actress whom Prince Rainier said he always missed after her death. He never remarried.

"For each of us the prince was certainly the sovereign of the state but also a friend, a member of our family," the archbishop said.

"Today our people feel like orphans of this great man who loved us and whom we respected and loved."

Members of the royal household stood in black holding red or white single roses as the coffin was brought to the cathedral behind a large cross.

The ordinary people of Monaco, a tiny principality of about 30,000 people on the Mediterranean coast next to France and close to Italy, watched behind metal barriers as the funeral cortege passed.

The funeral guest list included King Carl Gustav of Sweden, Queen Sonja of Norway, Britain's Prince Andrew and members of the royal families of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Denmark, Egypt, Greece and Japan.