US:American political leaders have paid tribute to former president Gerald Ford at an elaborate funeral service at Washington's national cathedral, with President George Bush describing Mr Ford as embodying the best of America's values.
Former presidents Jimmy Carter, George HW Bush and Bill Clinton were among the mourners at the ceremony, which opened with Aaron Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man.
"In President Ford, the world saw the best of America - and America found a man whose character and leadership would bring calm and healing to one of the most divisive moments in our nation's history," Mr Bush said.
Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger paid tribute to Mr Ford's foreign policy achievements, including a nuclear arms control deal with the Soviet Union and the first political agreement between Israel and Egypt.
"In his understated way he did his duty as a leader, not as a performer playing to the gallery - Gerald Ford had the virtues of small-town America," Mr Kissinger said.
Mr Bush recalled Mr Ford's unexpected elevation to high office after Richard Nixon's vice-president, Spiro Agnew, resigned over charges of bribery.
"When President Nixon needed to replace a vice-president who had resigned in scandal, he naturally turned to a man whose name was a synonym for integrity. And eight months later, when he was elevated to the presidency, it was because America needed him, not because he needed the office," the president said.
Mourners included most of the current Republican and Democratic leadership, as well as former first lady Nancy Reagan, former secretary of state Colin Powell and former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Ireland's Ambassador to Washington, Noel Fahey, represented the Government.
Yesterday's service followed two days of lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda and Mr Ford's remains were flown later to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he will be buried today in the grounds of his presidential library.
Mr Bush praised as "tough and decent" the former president's controversial decision to pardon Mr Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal but acknowledged that it probably cost Mr Ford the presidential election in 1976.
"President Ford's time in office was brief, but history will long remember the courage and common sense that helped restore trust in the workings of our democracy," Mr Bush said.
The president's father said that although Americans generally resist the idea of an indispensable man, it was difficult to imagine anyone fulfilling as successfully as he did the role history gave to Mr Ford.
"History has a way of matching man and moment. And just as President Lincoln's stubborn devotion to our constitution kept the union together during the civil war, and just as FDR's optimism was the perfect antidote to the despair of the Great Depression, so too can we say that Gerry Ford's decency was the ideal remedy for the deception of Watergate," the former president said.