World leaders bid farewell to Vaclav Havel

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband former President Bill Clinton, joined leaders from France, Britain and many ex-communist countries for the funeral mass in the gothic St. Vitus cathedral at Prague Castle, the seat of Czech kings and presidents.

Havel, a dissident playwright who died on Sunday at 75 after a long respiratory illness, served five years in jail for his criticism of oppressive communist rule before rising to the presidency of what was then Czechoslovakia in late 1989.

He stepped down as Czech president in 2003 but remained a symbol of struggle for freedom and human rights, although his proclamation that "truth and love must win over lies and hatred" turned bitter to some Czechs amid economic hardship and corruption in the years after the end of totalitarian rule.

A thousand guests filled the monumental cathedral for the mass, while thousands more followed the service on large screens outside.

"He fought against the communists, stuck to his opinion, made big sacrifices," said 14-year old Anezka Chroustova, who brought a bunch of yellow roses.

Havel's widow, actress Dagmar Havlova, clad in a black veil, sat in the front row at the mass celebrated by archbishop Dominik Duka, the head of the Czech Catholic church. Havel's casket lay on the floor, covered by a Czech flag.

Sirens and church bells rang around the central European country at noon in Havel's memory and many people stopped on the streets to observe a minute of silence, some moved to tears. Some factories stopped work.

On Wednesday, over 10,000 mourners had marched through Prague's cobblestoned medieval streets, led by his widow, to pay their respects. Thousands of candles were burning at Prague's Wenceslas Square and Narodni Trida, the main spots of the Velvet Revolution demonstrations.