Four presidents and a rowdy funeral for a King

LITHONIA, Georgia - Speakers seized on the presence of US President George W. Bush to attack his policies at the funeral today of Coretta Scott King, the first lady of the US civil rights movement.

Jimmy Carter, one of four presidents to speak, took a jab at Bush's domestic eavesdropping program during six hours of sermons, speeches and song for the late widow of Nobel peace laureate Martin Luther King, assassinated in 1968.

The 10,000 mourners also heard the Reverend Joseph Lowery, a civil-rights leader, cite Mrs King's legacy as a champion of nonviolence and racial equality while launching barbs at Bush administration policies on Iraq and health care.

Mrs. King, 78, died on January 30 of complications from ovarian cancer. Her funeral at a Baptist church in Lithonia, Georgia, drew a "who's who" of the political and entertainment worlds and the US civil rights community.

With Washington debating the legality of Bush's domestic eavesdropping on Americans suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Carter drew spirited applause with comments on federal efforts to spy on the Kings decades ago.

"It was difficult for them personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated, and they became the targets of secret government wiretapping and other surveillance," Carter said.

Former President Bill Clinton, a favourite among mainstream civil rights leaders, offered a teasing hint of the possible presidential candidacy of his wife, New York Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who stood smiling at his side.

"I'm honoured to be here with my president and my former presidents and ...," he trailed off, motioning in his wife's direction to loud and sustained applause.

Speaking first, ahead of his critics, Bush said: "I've come today to offer the sympathy of our entire nation at the passing of a woman who worked to make our nation whole.

"Having loved a leader she became a leader. And when she spoke Americans listened closely, because her voice carried the wisdom and goodness of a life well-lived," he said.

Lowery, former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which Martin Luther King helped found in 1957, gave a playful reading of a poem in eulogy of Mrs. King and made a none-too-veiled reference to the Iraq war launched by Bush.

"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there / But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here / Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor," Lowery said.

The mourners responded with a standing ovation. Bush's immediate reaction could not be seen on television, but after Lowery finished speaking, the president shook his hand and laughed.

The service, billed as a celebration of Mrs. King's life, featured performances by Stevie Wonder and Michael Bolton. Mourners joined a choir in singing some of King's favourite gospel songs, among them "Amazing Grace."

Born April 27, 1927, near Marion, Alabama, Coretta Scott King played a back-up role in the civil rights movement until her husband, a Baptist minister, was gunned down in Memphis on April 4, 1968.

- REUTERS