Thousands of pilgrims interrupted Pope John Paul II's funeral on Saint Peter's Square today, calling for his immediate canonisation as the first non-Italian pontiff since the 16th century embarked on his final journey.

With a chant of "santo, santo, santo" the crowd interrupted the closely-choreographed service for more than five minutes, but failed to dent the celebratory atmosphere at the Vatican.

John Paul II was seen off by a host of presidents, prime ministers and kings, who joined pilgrims and prelates at a funeral service that drew millions to the Italian capital. Tony Blair and the Prince of Wales represented Britain and in the UK election candidates took a day off campaigning.

An estimated four million pilgrims are thought to have come to Rome for the funeral and at least two million followed it on vast television screens in parks and public places across the city. Among the crowds filling the streets around the Vatican were hundreds of thousands of Poles.

But as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals and a possible successor to John Paul, read a lengthy homily to him, there appeared to be some frustration among the Poles on the square itself at their inability to follow his heavily-accented Italian.

The Cardinal was interrupted at least ten times during his speech by applause when pictures of the Pope's simple cypress-wood coffin flashed up on a screen by St Peter's Basilica.

One round of applause turned into a lengthy interruption as Polish pilgrims waved their national flag, chanted and held up banners reading "Santo Subito!" - Saint Now!.

The service began with the Sistine Choir singing the Gregorian chant "Grant him Eternal rest O Lord". Cardinals wearing white mitres walked onto the square, the wind rippling their red vestments and the pages of a Gospel placed on the papal coffin.

Cardinal Ratzinger, a close confidant of John Paul, referred to him as our "late beloved Pope" in a homily that traced his life from his days as a factory worker in Nazi-occupied Poland to the last days of his life as the head of the world’s one billion Catholics.

The usually unflappable German-born cardinal choked with emotion as he recalled one of the Pope's last public appearances - when he blessed the faithful from his studio window on Easter Day.

"We can be sure that our beloved Pope is standing today at the window of the House of the Father, that he sees us and blesses us," the cardinal said, bringing applause even from prelates as he pointed up to the third-floor window above the square.

"Today we bury his remains in the earth as a seed of immortality - our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time of joyful hope and profound gratitude," he added.

Cardinal Ratzinger said that John Paul was a "priest to the last" who had offered his life for God and his flock "especially amid the sufferings of his final months".

Groggy pilgrims who had camped out on the cobblestones awoke in their sleeping bags to hordes of the faithful stepping over them as they tried to secure a good spot to view the Mass.

The square and the boulevard leading to it were a sea of red and white flags waved by pilgrims from John Paul’s beloved Poland, many in traditional dress shouting "Polska! Polska!"

"We just wanted to say goodbye to our father for the last time," said Joanna Zmijewsla, 24, who travelled for 30 hours with her brother Szymon from a town near Kielce, Poland, and arrived at St Peter’s at 1am on Friday.

Before the Mass began, American Archbishop James Harvey, head of papal protocol, greeted black-clad dignitaries and religious leaders as they emerged from St. Peter’s onto the steps. Turbans, fezzes, yarmulkes and black lace veils, or mantillas, joined the zucchettos or skull caps of Catholic prelates on the steps of St. Peter’s in an extraordinary mix of religious and government leaders from around the world.

Ten minutes before the scheduled start of the funeral, the US delegation arrived, headed by President Bush and including his father and Bill Clinton. Mr Bush and Laura, sat next to President Jacques Chirac of France.

Also seated among the dignitaries from more than 80 countries were Iran's President Khatami, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, four kings and five queens.

Rome itself was at a standstill. In the early hours a ban on vehicle traffic took effect in the entire city. Air space was closed and anti-aircraft batteries outside the city were on alert. Naval ships patrolled both the Mediterranean coast and the Tiber River near Vatican City, the tiny sovereign city-state encompassed by the Italian capital.

In John Paul's homeland millions of Poles attended masses last night to pray for the soul of the former Karol Wojtyla and an estimated 300,000 gathered in a vast field in Krakow to follow his funeral by videolink.

In Wadowice, John Paul's home town, the square in front of St Mary’s Basilica where he was baptised was filled with some 15,000 people from the town and surrounding area watching the funeral on a large television screen. An orchestra of firefighters played his favourite song, The Barge.

• A private jet which strayed into the 75-mile no-flight zone above the Vatican was intercepted by two Italian F-16 fighters responding to intelligence reports indicating that at it was carrying a bomb. The Learjet was forced to land at Pratica di Mare air base, south of the Italian capital, where it was searched. Reports released later suggest that no bomb was found.

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