In the Holy Land, pilgrims, clergy and Palestinian worshippers packed churches. Foreign tourists in Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Nazareth sat in pews alongside Israeli Arab and Palestinian Christians to pay their last respects.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, called the Pope “a great religious figure who devoted his life to defending the values of peace, freedom, justice and equality for all races and religions, as well as our people’s right to independence”.

Even Islamic fundamentalist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad joined in the chorus: “We remember the statements of His Holiness the Pope on the rights of the Palestinians, and we hope that the Vatican leadership will stick to his position against the occupation,” Sami Abu Zohari, a Hamas spokesman, said.

In Pakistan, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, of the Islamist Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alliance, said the world had lost a man of peace. “George Bush’s talk of a crusader war was a clear negation of Pope John Paul’s efforts to promote interfaith dialogue and harmony,” he said.

In Cairo the Arab League saluted the Pope by lowering flags at its headquarters to half-mast. Hossam Zaki, its spokesman, said the Pope had helped to avoid “unnecessary misunderstandings” between Christians and Muslims over Western government policies in the region.

President Khatami of Iran said the Islamic Republic had learned with “extreme sadness” of the Pope’s death, saying that he commanded “the three paths of religious learning, philosophical thought and poetical and artistic creativity”.

Communist Cuba hailed the Pope’s commitment to the poor and rejection of unbridled capitalism, while China — displeased with the Vatican’s recognition of Taiwan — offered condolences but pointedly expressed the hope that its ties to the Holy See would improve under his successor.

“We hope that the Vatican under the new pope will create conditions conducive to the improvement of relations with China,” Liu Jianchao, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said.

News of the Pope’s death spread slowly through Beijing, where people filled government-sanctioned churches, but state-run media released only a trickle of information. At the Southern Cathedral, Beijing’s largest Catholic church, mourners sang hymns and clasped their hands in prayer, some clutching rosary beads. Others lined up to light red and yellow rose-shaped candles.

President Katsav of Israel said: “The Jewish people will remember the Pope, who bravely put an end to historic injustice by officially rejecting prejudices and accusations against Jews.”

Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader who met the Pope a month after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, was generous in his praise. “I think John Paul II had a huge impact on ending the Cold War,” Mr Gorbachev said. “Today humanity has bid farewell to a great figure, an exceptional man.”

But many Russians had harsh words about strained relations between the Catholic and Orthodox churches, a legacy of the great East-West Christian schism of 1054. Although the Pope visited Orthodox countries such as Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Ukraine, he was not invited by the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, Alexiy II, who feared that Rome was trying to poach his followers.

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