Patriarch Pavle, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church during the fall of communism and the Balkan wars, died yesterday in Belgrade, with thousands paying tribute to the 95-year-old religious leader.

A casket containing the body was brought to Belgrade's main cathedral, where it was displayed to followers to bid their final farewells.

Serbian President Boris Tadic, Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic and other officials were among the first to pay tribute and light candles, with thousands of others queueing silently as they waited their turn outside the church.

A requiem mass is to be held on Thursday in Belgrade's St. Sava Cathedral, Serbia's largest, before Pavle is buried in Rakovica monastery in a suburb of the capital, the church's Holy Synod said.

Archbishop Amfilohije, the acting head of the church since the patriarch became ill several years ago, will hold the office until a new patriarch is elected, the synod said.

Pavle took over the leadership of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1990, amid upheavals over the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia, the fall of communism and rise of Serb nationalism.

His rule saw the church take a prominent role in the country, with religion back on the curriculum in Serbia's schools after more than 60 years of enforced atheism.

The majority of Serbia's 7 million people are Orthodox Christians; the government has declared three days of mourning, starting today.

In a public address, Tadic said the patriarch's death was an "irredeemable loss for the entire Serbian nation."

"His death is also my personal loss," Tadic said.

Cvetkovic said the Orthodox Church and the Serbian nation had "lost a wise head ... a spiritual leader we could be proud of both as a nation and as a state."

Church bells were tolling every hour throughout the country, including Serb-populated areas in Kosovo, while Serbian state television switched from its regular programming to tributes to the deceased patriarch.

Leaders of neighbouring countries, including Filip Vujanovic, the president of Montenegro, and Milorad Dodik, the prime minister of the Republika Srpska, the Serb-held entity in Bosnia, whose nations share the Orthodox faith, sent letters of condolence.

Highly appreciated by the faithful for his simple lifestyle and personal humility, Pavle was often referred to as the "saint who walks."

The patriarch was widely viewed as the leader of a moderate wing within the church, and is widely expected to be replaced by a hard-liner.

State television quoted Pavle as saying at the start of the Balkans wars in the 1990s: "It is our oath not to make a single child cry or sadden a single old woman because they are of another religion or nation."

During Pavle's rule, however, the church backed Serb nationalists in Croatia and Bosnia in the 1990s, and was believed to have given sanctuary to a number of war crime suspects, including former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic during his 13 years in hiding before his arrest in July 2008.

The patriarch once signed a petition asking the international community to drop the case against Karadzic, now on trial in The Hague for his role in the war in Bosnia, notably the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

Before he was appointed the 44th Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Pavle served as bishop in Kosovo, the breakaway Serbian province considered the cradle of Serb history and culture.

Known for his support of the Serbs throughout the Balkans, Pavle distanced himself from the autocratic regime of the late president Slobodan Milosevic only when it lost control of Kosovo after the 1998-1999 conflict.

The Serbian Orthodox Church has been playing an active role in Belgrade's efforts to prevent Kosovo from gaining independence, and rejected Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in February 2008.

During Pavle's mandate, the church was also hurt by several pedophilia scandals and by bishops who blessed paramilitary troops ahead of campaigns in Croatia and Bosnia, where they committed war crimes.