Yeltsin Moscow funeral announced

The Kremlin said Yeltsin - the man who engineered the final collapse of the Soviet Union and pushed Russia toward pluralism and a market economy - would be buried at Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery.

Yeltsin died of heart failure on Monday afternoon at the age of 76. He died in the Central Clinical Hospital, Russian news agencies reported, citing Sergei Mironov, head of the presidential administration's medical centre.

Although Yeltsin was initially admired abroad for his defiance of the monolithic Communist system, many Russians will remember him mostly for presiding over the steep decline of their nation.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, summed up the complexity of Yeltsin's political life in a condolence statement minutes after the death was announced. He referred to Yeltsin as one "on whose shoulders are both great deeds for the country and serious errors," according to the news agency Interfax.

President Vladimir Putin called Yeltsin's widow, Naina, to express condolences, the Kremlin said, but it did not quote his remarks.

World leaders responded quickly to his death, calling him a personal friend and praising him as a courageous fighter during the Soviet Union's dramatic change that marked the end of the Cold War.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and the Russian people. Former President Yeltsin led Russia through a period of historic transformation," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

The European Union and the Nato alliance hailed Yeltsin as a healer of the Cold War divide who opened up Russia to the rest of Europe.

"As President he had enormous challenges and difficult mandates, but he certainly brought East and West closer together and helped replace confrontation by cooperation," said Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission.