The remains of former US President Ronald Reagan were flown Wednesday to the US capital of Washington, D.C., where he will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda until Friday for a state funeral.

Early Wednesday morning, former first lady Nancy Reagan and other members of the immediate Reagan family attended a short ceremony at the Reagan Presidential Library, where Reagan's casket was removed from the library lobby and carried by eight military pallbearers into a hearse.

A Marine Corp band played "Hail to the Chief" and, during the procession, "America the Beautiful."

The hearse and Nancy Reagan's motorcade then set out for Point Mugu Naval Air Station, from where the aircraft carrying the late president's remains and family members departed at 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time (1730 GMT).

The plane is to arrive at Andrews Air Force base near Washington at 5 p.m. East Coast time (2200 GMT).

The journey to Washington followed an outpouring of public affection so great that it left his widow stunned. By late Tuesday,more than 105,000 people had filed by the flag-draped casket at the library to pay respects to Reagan, the 40th US President who served two terms from 1981 to 1989.

Among those who filed by the casket Tuesday was presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, who will also attend Friday's funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

At the Reagan home in Bel-Air, where the former president died of pneumonia Saturday at age 93 after battling Alzheimer's disease for at least a decade, Nancy Reagan said she was amazed by the turnout.

"It is unbelievable what I am seeing on TV," Nancy was quoted by family chief of staff Joanne Drake as saying. "The outpouring of love for my husband is incredible."

The former president's remains will be driven late Friday to the Ellipse, a site south of the White House, near the Washington Monument, and placed atop a caisson drawn by six horses up Constitution Avenue for a solemn procession to the Capitol.

Reagan will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda through Thursday, this time giving East Coast residents a chance to pay last respects.

Then, on Friday, which President Bush has proclaimed a nationalday of mourning, a state funeral -- the first for a former president since the January 1973 death of Lyndon Baines Johnson --will be held at the Washington National Cathedral.

Reagan will be eulogized by President Bush as well as by former President George H.W. Bush, Reagan's vice president, and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Following the funeral, the body will be flown back to California to be buried on the Reagan library grounds in a private ceremony late Friday.