Tens of thousands of people gathered at a Roman basilica yesterday to pay their final respects to 19 Italians killed in a truck bombing in Iraq and the entire nation observed a day of mourning - a unified outpouring of grief in a country deeply divided over the Iraq war.

　　A state funeral for the 19 victims was held a day after a public viewing of the caskets at a central Roman monument lasted through the night andsintosyesterday morning, drawing hundreds of thousands of people.

　　Early yesterday, flatbed trucks flanked by horses carried the caskets to St Paul's outside the Wall basilica - the second largest Roman church after St Peter's - in a march that crept along a procession route lined with thousands of Italian red, white and green flags.

　　"We will never forget our dear heroes," said a banner displayed on the Fori Imperiali boulevard near the Colosseum. "Before, 19 Italians on Earth. Now, 19 angels in heaven," read another.

　　Thousands of people lined the procession route and clapped and wept as the coffins went by. Heeding a call by authorities, residents displayed flags along the route, draping them from windows, balconies and even wrapping them around themselves.

　　"What they did for us is so significant, so meaningful," said Jessica Carbajal, a 15-year-old high schooler who had a flag tied like a cape around her shoulders. "We won't ever forget them."

　　She and a few friends received permission to skip school yesterday morning to attend the funeral - and were among tens of thousands of people gathered outside St Paul's who watched the Mass from giant TV screens.

　　Inside the basilica, the flag-draped coffins were laid out in two neat rows before the altar, watched over by the Italian president, premier and other top civilian and military leaders, as well as the families of the victims.

　　State television and other Italian channels carried the Mass live.

　　Authorities asked Italians to observe a national day of mourning.

　　Schools and the Milan Stock Exchange were to observe a minute of silence and workers planned to pause for 10 minutes. Shops said they would close briefly and movie theaters said they would keep their marquees dark as a sign of respect.

　　In Nasiriyah, Iraq, site of the attack, the military held a brief commemoration and moment of silence.

　　On Monday, hundreds of thousands of Italians, young and old from across the country, lined up for hours to attend the public viewing of the coffins inside a central Roman monument.

　　Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi wept on Monday as he embraced the father of one of the victims, and ordinary Italians wiped tears from their eyes as they laid flowers and flags at the gate of the Victor Emmanuel II monument on Piazza Venezia.

　　"I'm here to pay homage to these boys who have fallen for a just cause," Pietro Bernardini, 76, said as he waited in line to view the caskets. "They should not have ended up in this barbarian way."

　　The Italian government of Premier Silvio Berlusconi was a strong supporter of the United States during the war, and sent 2,700 troops to help stabilize Iraq afterward.

　　But ordinary Italians were largely opposed to the conflict, according to polls before and during the conflict. In February, during a day of global anti-war demonstrations, Rome drew the world's single biggest rally, with about 1 million Italians marching.

　　But the deaths of the Italians - Italy's single worst military loss since World War II - has united the country in grief and, remarkably, silenced Italy's ever bickering politicians.