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Former US President Ronald Reagan will be honored in a state funeral Friday, which will be attended by President George W. Bush and an array of world leaders, Reagan's chief of staff Joanne Drake announced Sunday.
Reagan, the 40th US president who died at the age of 93 Saturday, will lie in state in California and in Washington, D.C. for ordinary Americans to pay their final respects, Drake said at a news conference outside Reagan's mortuary in Santa Monica, western Los Angeles.
Friday will be designated as a national day of mourning for Reagan, who died after a 10-year struggle with the Alzheimer's, according to Drake.
Reagan's body will be taken to the Reagan Library north of Los Angeles on Monday morning and it will lie in state there through Tuesday evening, she said.
On Wednesday, the remains will be flown to Washington to lie instate in the rotunda of the Capitol building in Washington D.C. until Thursday night, and the casket will be brought to the Capitol Building by a horse-drawn caisson followed by a single drummer.
On Friday, a funeral service will be held in the National Cathedral at which President Bush will speak, Drake said.
Afterward, the body will be flown back to California, and will be buried at a private service for family and friends on a hillside overlooking the ocean at the Reagan Library, Drake said.
Leaders of the G8 group of the world's major industrialized nations, who are meeting in the US state of Georgia this week, are expected to travel to Washington for the funeral on Friday.
(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2004)
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