Updated

Egypt's president has led the funeral procession for the country's veteran diplomat Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who was laid to rest with top state honors.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi walked at the front of the cortege as a horse-drawn hearse carried Boutros-Ghali's flag-draped coffin. The head of Egypt's Coptic Church attended the service in Cairo, along with senior dignitaries.

The Coptic patriarch, Pope Tawadros II, said Egypt bids "farewell to this fine example in Egyptian life and in Egyptian history."

Boutros-Ghali, who died on Tuesday at the age of 93, helped negotiate Egypt's landmark peace deal with Israel but then clashed with the United States when he served a single term as U.N. secretary-general.

The scion of a prominent Egyptian Christian political family, he was the first U.N. chief from the African continent.