Palestinians mourn radical Habash

The funeral service was interrupted by chants of support for the former PFLP leader using his nickname "al-Hakim".

The coffin was paraded outside the Amman church draped in a Palestinian flag before being taken for burial.

His Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was active in the armed struggle against Israel from the 1960s.

It was famous for attacks on airliners in the 1970s, including the 1976 hijacking of an Air France airliner to Entebbe, Uganda, which was ended by an Israeli commando raid.

Mr Habash stepped down as leader of the PFLP in 2000, as the group was becoming ever more marginalised by the growing power of Islamist movements like Hamas.

Obituary: George Habash

PFLP profile

Mr Habash's wife, Hilda, led the procession of mourners who included Nayef Hawatmeh, leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and officials from the Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Mustafa Barghouti, the Palestinian MP who stood in the 2005 Palestinian presidential election in an alliance with the PFLP, said Mr Habash had shown "loyalty to the Palestinian cause in a very principled manner".

Hundreds of mourners bore Palestinian and PFLP flags to the Greek Orthodox church in west Amman, as well as large portraits of Mr Habash.

Mr Abbas said in a statement that the frequently harsh critic of Fatah had been an "historic leader", and he ordered flags to be flown at half-mast for three days in the Palestinian territories.

Mr Habash, labelled an arch-terrorist by Israel during the hijackings and guerrilla attacks of the 1970s, justified his actions as a way to highlight the neglected Palestinian cause.

He had been in poor health since resigning the leadership of the PFLP. He died on Saturday in an Amman hospital at the age of 81 after having a heart attack.