Memorial service, burial ceremony held for late Vietnamese party chief Nguyen Phu Trong

HANOI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A memorial service and a burial ceremony were held in the Vietnamese capital on Friday for the late General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong.

The memorial service, held at the National Funeral Hall, was attended by hundreds of people, including Vietnamese President To Lam, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man and Trong's family, Vietnam News Agency reported.

At the memorial service, Lam read a eulogy to express respect and appreciation for the "extremely enormous contributions and dedications" made by Trong to the cause of national construction and development.

He said Trong's invaluable legacy has consolidated the strong trust of the Vietnamese people on the path towards socialism, significantly contributing to the development of the world communist movement, Marxism-Leninism, and Ho Chi Minh's ideology in the present era.

After the memorial service, Trong's coffin was carried onto a hearse. The hearse convoy then departed from the National Funeral Hall to the Mai Dich Cemetery, where the burial ceremony started at 3 p.m. local time (0800 GMT).

Many people lined the route holding photos of Trong to bid him farewell as the hearse convoy passed by.

Trong, born in 1944 in Dong Anh District, Hanoi, was a member of the 7th to 13th CPV Central Committee, a member of the 8th to 13th CPV Central Committee Political Bureau, general secretary of the 11th to 13th CPV Central Committee, and a deputy to the 11th to 15th National Assembly of Vietnam.

He died on July 19 after a period of illness at the age of 80, according to Vietnam's board of health protection and care for central officials.■