US President Barack Obama has paid his final tribute to Edward M. Kennedy, the influential senator who spent over 47 years in Congress.

Former presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush also took part in the funeral at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston on Saturdaylica in Boston on Saturday.

Obama delivered the eulogy at a two-hour Roman Catholic funeral Mass for the late senator.

"We do not weep for him today because of the prestige attached to his name or his office," Obama said, according to prepared remarks.

"We weep because we loved this kind and tender hero who persevered through pain and tragedy - not for the sake of ambition or vanity; not for wealth or power; but only for the people and the country he loved."

Aides had said the eulogy would be deeply personal to Obama, who they said considered Kennedy to be a 'giant' in his life.

"We can still hear his voice bellowing through the Senate chamber, face reddened, fist pounding the podium, a veritable force of nature, in support of health care or workers' rights or civil rights," Obama said.

Kennedy died Tuesday night at the age of 77, after battling brain cancer for more than a year.

Kennedy's body was to be taken to Washington for a late afternoon burial at Arlington National Cemetery, the graveyard near the Pentagon that is the final resting place of many of America's war dead.

Kennedy's resting place will be steps away from the graves of hiaway from the graves of his assassinated brothers - president John F. Kennedy who was shot in 1963 and Robert Kennedy, who suffered the same fate while campaigning for the presidency in 1968.

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