Mourners carried brightly coloured umbrellas to ward off the punishing sun at the barren al-Oud cemetery, a desert plain with small patches of brush among simple piles of dirt and small uninscribed stones to mark the graves. Snipers kept watch from nearby buildings a reminder of the heavy security that surrounded the funeral.

The body of Fahd, who died Monday at age 84, was wrapped in his own brown abaya cloak as it was lowered into the grave by members of his family.

Satellite TV stations seen across the Arab world, many of them owned by Saudi businessmen, carried live coverage of the funeral after a day of tributes to Fahd's life.

Earlier, mourners packed the Imam Turki bin Abdullah mosque to say prayers for the man who led this oil-rich country for almost a quarter of a century.

Fahd's body was carried into the mosque on a wooden plank carried by his sons, and placed in the middle of the mosque amid the crowd of thousands, including his successor, King Abdullah. Thousands crowded in the mosque, some with tears in their eyes as the special prayer for the dead began.

The mourners stood, raising their arms and chanting "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great" during the two-minute prayer. Afterward, Fahd's body was carried back out to an ambulance for a procession of cars to a Riyadh cemetery where the monarch, wrapped in a white shroud, will be buried in an unmarked grave, in keeping with the kingdom's austere version of Islam.

Heads of state and delegations from Western nations including Britain's Prince Charles, French President Jacques Chirac and a US delegation were expected to arrive later in the day to greet Abdullah. The makeup of the US delegation was not announced.