Poles to pay tribute to lost President Lech Kaczynski

The dead president's daughter visited his coffin on Sunday

The body of Polish President Lech Kaczynski is to lie in state in the capital Warsaw as the nation mourns the victims of the Smolensk air crash.

He and 95 others, including many top defence officials and public figures, died when their jet crashed en route to a war memorial service in Russia.

Other victims are being identified by relatives who flew to Moscow, where the bodies have been placed in morgues.

Russian investigators suspect pilot error caused the crash.

They say the pilots were warned that they were flying too low just before the plane clipped tree-tops in heavy fog, as it was coming in to land at an air base on Saturday morning.

An outpouring of grief has been seen in Polish communities across the world and the country is observing a week of public mourning. Monday is also a day of mourning in Russia, whose relations with its western neighbour were troubled for centuries.

This is so very much like Katyn, where our head was cut off Lech Walesa Former Polish president Prayers and praise In pictures: Body returns

Poland has moved to fill some of the gaps left by the disaster, appointing an acting head of the central bank, while the presidential post has been filled by the parliamentary speaker pending a new election.

The Polish government plane was carrying dignitaries who spanned Polish public life. They had been due to attend a memorial for the Polish victims of a World War II massacre by Soviet secret police at Katyn in Smolensk.

Commentators in Poland have stressed the irony that so many senior figures were killed making a visit to commemorate victims of a massacre which targeted the elite of Poland's officer corps.

"This is so very much like Katyn, where our head was cut off," said former President Lech Walesa.

Unprecedented funerals

SENIOR FIGURES KILLED National leaders: President Lech Kaczynski and wife Maria Former President-in-exile Ryszard Kaczorowski Top civil servant: Slawomir Skrzypek National Bank of Poland chairman Other politicians: Wladyslaw Stasiak chief of the president's chancellery Aleksander Szczyglo chief of the National Security Office Jerzy Szmajdzinski deputy speaker of the lower house Andrzej Kremer Foreign Ministry's undersecretary of state Stanislaw Komorowski deputy minister of national defence Przemyslaw Gosiewski Law and Justice party deputy chair Military figures: Franciszek Gagor chief of the general staff Andrzej Blasik head of the air force Andrzej Karweta head of the navy Tadeusz Buk land forces commander Aleksander Szczyglo head of the National Security Office Cultural figures: Andrzej Przewoznik head of Poland's Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites Tomasz Merta chief historical conservator

The pavement in front of President Kaczynski's palace in central Warsaw has nearly disappeared from sight, covered now with thousands of small glass pots containing candles laid as a mark of respect, the BBC's Duncan Kennedy reports from the city.

Mr Kaczynski's body was brought back from Russia on Sunday. It was driven through crowd-lined streets to the palace, where it will lie in state.

"He taught Poles how to respect our traditions, how to fight for our dignity, and he made he made his sacrifice there at that tragic place," mourner Boguslaw Staron, 70, told the Associated Press news agency.

Among those who also died in the crash was the president's wife, Maria.

There is no precedent for a duel funeral involving a head of state and his first lady, so it is unclear if they will have a joint or separate ceremony, our correspondent says.

With a swathe cut through the top military leaders, their first deputies have taken over any immediate duties meaning that the country's armed forces are operating normally, he adds.

At the central bank, the late Slawomir Skrzypek was replaced temporarily by his deputy, Piotr Wiesiolek.

Parliamentary Speaker Bronislaw Komorowski said he would call for early elections within 14 days, in line with the constitution. The vote must be held within another 60 days.

Difficult identification

Relatives of some of the air crash victims have been arriving in Moscow in an effort to identify their loved ones formally.

Victims' relatives visited a Moscow morgue on Sunday

The plane caught fire in the crash and none of those aboard survived.

Senior Russian prosecutor Vasily Piskarev said 24 bodies had been identified as of Sunday, mostly through their clothing and ID documents. He warned that it would be difficult to identify some of the remains.

Polish Health Minister Ewa Kopacz, who is in Moscow with a delegation, said that only 14 bodies would be "identifiable without problems", while a further 20 would be identifiable thanks to distinguishing marks.

"But for the rest, DNA tests will be necessary," she added.

The Russian authorities have announced that they will meet all of the expenses of the Polish relatives coming to Moscow, and provide counselling alongside Polish colleagues. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flew to Smolensk just hours after the crash and sought to console his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk.

Russia's handling of the tragedy has won some admiration in Poland.

Witold Waszczykowski, deputy head of Poland's National Security Bureau and one of the few Kaczynski aides not to have been on Saturday's ill-fated flight, was quoted by Reuters as saying: "We did not expect this gentle, kind approach, this personal involvement from Putin.

"Naturally it will have a positive impact on the relationship between our countries."

Poland's ambassador to Russia, Jerzy Bahr, told Polish TV: "We can sense Russian solidarity at every step of the way."

Hanna Budzisz, 55, whose great uncle was killed at Katyn, told AFP news agency: "The Russians are our historic foes, so I'm very pleasantly surprised by how President [Dmitry] Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin have reacted."

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