Cairo: World leaders started trickling in the Egyptian capital today (Nov 12, 2004) to bid adieu to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who will be accorded a military funeral in Cairo.

A high-level Indian delegation led by External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh arrived in Cairo early this morning to pay respects to the departed leader.

The delegation comprising Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury will represent the country at the funeral proceedings, which are scheduled for later in the afternoon.

Also read: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat passes away

Arafat, the symbol of Palestinians quest for a separate nation, died yesterday at a Paris hospital of an unspecified blood disorder.

His body, accompanied by his wife Suha and other Palestinian officials, reached Cairo in the wee hours of today after a flight from Paris yesterday.

At the funeral service, both a religious ceremony and a military parade would be held with the Palestinian leader's body being drawn by a horse drawn carriage.

The brief and solemn ceremony will be held under tight security at the nearby Gala club - a military compound that includes a hospital, a mosque and a social club in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis.

World leaders, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, South African President Thabo Mbeki, Jordanian King Abdullah II, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, European Union Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer are expected to take part in the ceremony.

US Assistant Secretary of State William Burns will officially represent his country at the ceremony.

No members of the public will be allowed to attend the ceremony, which will be a strictly controlled event.

The ceremony was initially planned for a mosque beside the international airport but was moved for logistical reasons.

After the funeral ceremony, Arafat's body will be flown to Ramallah and will be buried at his sand-bagged headquarters, where he was kept a virtual prisoner by Isreali forces for the last three years.

The Palestinian leader's top lieutenants Prime Minister Ahmed Qoroei and the newly installed leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation Mahmud Abbasare expected to read eulogies at the Ramallah service before he is finally laid to rest.