Poles mourn anti-communist icon

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Poland's top figures have joined hundreds of mourners at a Warsaw cathedral to honour a leading anti-communist, Bronislaw Geremek.

Former President Lech Walesa called Mr Geremek, who died in a car crash a week ago, "the greatest of Polish patriots".

Like Mr Walesa, Mr Geremek was a member of the banned trade union, Solidarity. He served as foreign minister after the collapse of communism in 1989.

He was credited with inspiring a whole generation of East European dissidents.

Mr Geremek, who was 76, died when the car he was in hit an oncoming vehicle in western Poland on 13 July.

His funeral Mass was held in St John's Cathedral in Warsaw on Monday.

Soldiers stood watch over his coffin, which was draped in Poland's red and white national flag.

Bronislaw Geremek was a historian by training

"What I'll tell you today is of no use to you, but conscience demands the truth in the face of death: in my view, you were the greatest of Poles, the greatest of patriots," Mr Walesa said.

"I thank God that I met you."

President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk were among those present, and the archbishop of Warsaw read a letter noting that Pope Benedict XVI had been saddened at Mr Geremek's death.

"His departure is a huge lost to the world of scholarship and politics," the Vatican letter read.

The former politician was also a widely respected medieval historian.