Jimmy Carter honoured at state funeral as US mourns former president

Jimmy Carter began his final journey on Thursday, with his flag-draped coffin being moved from the US Capitol for his state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral, as mourners paid their respects to the 39th US president.

The service caps a week of mourning that has seen thousands of citizens quietly filing past the casket to pay their respects to Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100 in his home state of Georgia.

President Joe Biden will deliver the eulogy for his fellow Democrat, the last from the so-called Greatest Generation, at the neo-Gothic cathedral.

The brief show of national unity comes just 11 days before Republican Donald Trump is due to return to the White House, in another moment of change for an increasingly divided United States.

US service members in ceremonial uniforms moved the coffin down the steps of the Capitol building, before a motorcade transported it through the snowy streets of Washington to the cathedral.

The Episcopal church has been a traditional venue for send-offs of US presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan to George H.W. Bush.