Baghdad - The official funeral ceremony for late Iraqi Shiite leader Abdulaziz al-Hakim began on Friday in Baghdad with top leaders on hand at Baghdad International Airport as al-Hakim's body was flown in from Tehran.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, and cabinet ministers, intellectuals and a number of Arab and foreign ambassadors were at the airport along with al-Hakim's family, led by his son Ammar.

The leader of Iraq's largest Shiite political party died on Wednesday at a hospital in Iran where he had been receiving treatment from lung cancer for the past four months.

The body was taken from the airport to the Bratha mosque, one of the major Shiite mosques in the capital. Later, it will be carried after the Friday prayers to the southern city of Karbala and then to the Shiite holy city of Najaf, where al-Hakim will be buried next to his brother.

In brief remarks, Iraqi leaders paid tribute to al-Hakim, with Talabani saying "Our country needs people like al-Hakim to help fight terrorism."

Al-Maliki said, "We pay you farewell as we stand here on solid ground and promise you to keep our course of fighting because we are in a sensitive period facing terrorism and dictatorship."

Al-Hakim has been the head of the council since the assassination of his elder brother Mohamed Baqer al-Hakim in an explosion in the southern city of Najaf in 2003.

The Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq which was founded in the early 1980s with the help of Iran, is a powerful party that has long formed the backbone of the dominant Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), Iraq's ruling Shiite coalition of over 20 groups.

Al-Hakim's son Ammar is now expected to succeed his father as head of the council.

On Thursday, the Iraqi government declared a three-day official mourning period for al-Hakim. (dpa)