(7 Jul 2004) SHOTLIST
1. City officials placing coffin on display
2. Deceased President Thomas Klestil's wife, Margot Loeffler-Klestil, entering the room with relatives
3. Photographers
4. New Austrian president Heinz Fischer hugging Loeffler-Klestil
5. Coffin draped in Austrian flag
6. Loeffler-Klestil standing by coffin then leaning on it
7. Close up wreath ribbon, reading "With love and thankfulness, your Margot"
8. Man paying respects by coffin
9. Candles and flowers on floor
10. Various of people filing past coffin and paying respects
11. SOUNDBITE: (German) Voxpop:
"We (are here to) share the sadness of his death, it is a farewell."
12. Exterior of Hofburg Imperial Palace
STORYLINE:
Austrians on Wednesday mourned the death of President Thomas Klestil, whose casket was laid in state at the Hofburg imperial palace in central Vienna, where the presidency is based.
Klestil, who had suffered from ill health in recent years, was airlifted to hospital on Monday in critical condition after suffering heart failure.
The 71-year-old died on Tuesday of multiple organ failure, just two days before the end of his second six-year term.
Four days of mourning began with Klestil's casket arriving at Hofburg and thousands of people filing past to pay their final respects.
Austria's new president, Heinz Fischer, as well as Chancellor Dr Wolfgang Schueffel both expressed their condolences to Klestil's widow, Margot Loeffler-Klestil, and the couple's children and other relatives.
A memorial service, open to the public, is to be held on Friday in a chapel in the Hofburg.
Klestil is to be laid to rest on Saturday in a state funeral at Vienna's Central Cemetery following a requiem Mass at St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Austria Press Agency said.
Condolences came in from around the world for a leader praised for improving Austria's standing in the world and for developing relations with emerging Eastern European nations.
Klestil also was credited with helping to distance Austria from its Nazi past after years of controversy over his predecessor Kurt Waldheim's World War II service in the German army.
Klestil's first term included a visit to Israel, where he expressed sympathy for Holocaust victims.
Critics occasionally accused Klestil of overstepping the ceremonial bounds of his office.
But he proved an efficient president, and in 1995, during his first term, Austria joined the European Union.
When the European Union punished Austria for allowing the rightist Freedom Party to join the government, Klestil put his diplomatic skills to work and lobbied heads of states to lift sanctions seven months after they were slapped on the nation.
Fischer, who was chosen in elections earlier this year as Austria's next president, takes over Klestil's job on Thursday.
While the post is mostly ceremonial, Austria's president is commander in chief of the country's military.
The constitution also gives the head of state the power to reject nominations for cabinet ministers or even to remove them from office - something that has rarely been done.
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