BEIJING, Feb. 9 -- Speakers seized on the presence of US President George W. Bush to attack his policies on Tuesday at the funeral of Coretta Scott King, the first lady of the US civil rights movement.

    Jimmy Carter, one of four presidents to speak, took a jab at Bush's domestic eavesdropping programme during 6 hours of sermons, speeches and song for the late widow of Nobel Peace Laureate Martin Luther King Jr, assassinated in 1968.

    The 10,000 mourners also heard the Reverend Joseph Lowery, a civil-rights leader, cite Mrs King's legacy as a champion of racial equality while launching barbs at Bush administration policies on Iraq and health care.

    Mrs King, 78, died on January 30 of complications from ovarian cancer. Her funeral at a Baptist church in Lithonia, Georgia, drew a "who's who" of the political and entertainment worlds and the US civil rights community.

    She was buried alongside her husband at the Martin Luther King Jr. Centre for Nonviolent Social Change she founded in nearby Atlanta.

    Eavesdropping attacked

    With Washington debating the legality of Bush's domestic eavesdropping on Americans suspected of ties to al-Qaida, Carter drew spirited applause with comments on federal efforts to spy on the Kings decades ago.

    "It was difficult for them personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated, and they became the targets of secret government wiretapping and other surveillance," Carter said.

    Former President Bill Clinton, a favourite among mainstream civil rights leaders, offered a teasing hint of the possible presidential candidacy of his wife, New York Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who stood smiling at his side.

    "I'm honoured to be here with my president and my former presidents and ...," he trailed off, motioning in his wife's direction to loud and sustained applause.

    Speaking first, ahead of his critics, Bush said: "I've come today to offer the sympathy of our entire nation at the passing of a woman who worked to make our nation whole.

    "Having loved a leader she became a leader. And when she spoke Americans listened closely, because her voice carried the wisdom and goodness of a life well-lived," he said.

    Pointed poetry

    Lowery, former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which Martin Luther King helped found in 1957, gave a playful reading of a poem in eulogy of Mrs King and made a none-too-veiled reference to the Iraq war launched by Bush.

    "We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there / But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here / Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor," Lowery said.

    The mourners responded with a standing ovation. Bush's immediate reaction could not be seen on television, but after Lowery finished speaking, the president who sat behind the speakers shook his hand and laughed.

    Bush's father George Bush, the fourth president at the funeral, broke any tension by recalling his own meetings as president with Lowery and gave a score: "Lowery 21, Bush 3, it wasn't a fair fight."

    Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin injected politics into her remarks, describing how Coretta Scott King spoke out against "the senselessness of war" with a voice that was heard "from the tintop roofs of Soweto to the bomb shelters of Baghdad."

    "She made many great sacrifices," said Sean Washington, 38, who drove from Tampa, Florida, with his wife and children to attend the funeral. "To be in her presence once more is something that I would definitely cherish, no matter what."

(Source: China Daily)