Sawt Falasteen - Vatican braces for huge crowds ahead of Pope's funeral

Many of the 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs attending Saturday's ceremony in St Peter's Square, who include US President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, are expected to arrive on Friday in Rome.

Italian and Vatican authorities have placed the area around St Peter's under tight security ahead of the funeral, with drones blocked, snipers on roofs and fighter jets on standby.

Further check-points will be activated Friday night, police said.

Tens of thousands of people have already queued for hours to pay their last respects to Francis, whose coffin will be closed at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) in a ceremony attended by senior cardinals.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the camerlengo who is running the Vatican's day-to-day affairs until a new pope is elected, will preside over the so-called "Rite of the Sealing of the Coffin".

The Catholic Church's first Latin American pope died on Monday aged 88, less than a month after spending weeks in hospital with severe pneumonia.

Veronique Montes-Coulomb, a tourist from Toulouse in France, who attended the lying-in-state Thursday at St Peter's, said she had been at the mass on Easter Sunday -- the pontiff's last public outing.

"We saw the pope passing by in the 'popemobile'; he seemed relatively healthy, and we were surprised to learn that he had died on Monday morning," she told AFP.

The Argentine pontiff, who had long suffered failing health, defied doctors' orders by appearing at Easter, the most important moment in the Catholic calendar.

Condolences have flooded in from around the world for the Jesuit, an energetic reformer who championed those on the fringes of society in his 12 years as head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.

He used his last speech to rail against those who stir up "contempt... towards the vulnerable, the marginalised, and migrants".

At least 130 foreign delegations are expected at his funeral, including Argentina's President Javier Milei and Britain's Prince William, and a no-fly zone will be in force.

- 'Brief but intense' -

The pope's coffin was set before St Peter's altar for his three days of lying-in-state, with Francis dressed in his papal vestments -- a red chasuble, white mitre and black shoes.

"It was a brief but intense moment next to his body," Italian Massimo Palo, 63, told AFP after his visit.

"He was a pope amongst his flock, amongst his people, and I hope the next papacies will be a bit like his," he added.

Italy's civil protection agency estimates that "several hundred thousand" people will descend on Rome on what was already set to be a busy weekend due to a public holiday on Friday.

After the funeral, Francis's coffin will be driven at a walking pace to be buried at his favourite church, Rome's papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

The pontiff was a champion of underdogs, and a group of "poor and needy", will be there to welcome the coffin, the Vatican said.

He will be interred in the ground, his simple tomb marked with just one word: Franciscus.

People will be able to visit the tomb from Sunday morning.

Following that, all eyes will turn to the process to choose Francis's successor.

Cardinals from around the world have been returning to Rome for the funeral and the conclave, when a new pontiff will be elected.

In the absence of a pope, the cardinals have been meeting every day to agree the next steps, with another meeting due on Friday at 9:00 am (0700 GMT).

They have yet to announce a date for the conclave, but it must begin no fewer than 15 days and no more than 20 days after a pope's death.

Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was number two to Francis, is the favourite, according to British bookmakers William Hill.

They put him ahead of Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle, the Metropolitan Archbishop emeritus of Manila, followed by Ghana's Cardinal Peter Turkson, and Matteo Zuppi, the Archbishop of Bologna.

K.Hassan--SF-PST