Sweden and Europe bid farewell to murdered Lindh

Swedish politicians and European leaders bade an emotional farewell yesterday to murdered Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, grieving at the loss of a woman they said had brought joy and honour to politics.

Sweden's king and queen, colleagues in the ruling Social Democrat party and European leaders paid homage at a memorial service in the imposing red brick City Hall where Nobel prizes are celebrated. The funeral will be private.

The speeches went well beyond the demands of etiquette. Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, fluent in Swedish from his time in exile here, asked "Why, why, why again?" was the 46-year-old mother of two stabbed to death last week.

Her murder at the hands of a lone knife-wielding man has rekindled bitter memories of the unsolved assassination in 1986 of Prime Minister Olof Palme. Security around the ceremony was the tightest Stockholm has seen since Palme's funeral.

A Stockholm court ordered the 35-year-old man who is the main suspect to be kept in custody for a week while the police investigation continues, at a remand hearing in a high-security underground court into which he was led with his head covered.

The suspect's court-appointed defence lawyer, Gunnar Falk, told Reuters afterwards that police were having difficulty.

"I am not particularly impressed by the evidence. They cannot link him to the crime," Falk said.

Police issued a statement saying they were continuing their investigation with "maximum effort" in the push to solve the murder of one of Sweden's most loved modern figures.

In the City Hall decked with the Swedish, EU and UN flags and red Social Democrat banners, European External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten paid his tribute. "Few events stop the clocks; one such event was the death of Anna Lindh, a woman who loved the world and was loved by the world," he said.

Lindh, tipped as Sweden's next prime minister, was attacked on September 10 while out shopping and died the next day. She had no bodyguard, which is normal for Nordic politicians.

Lindh had campaigned for Sweden to join the European Union's single currency in September 14's referendum - a proposal that was defeated. But police have not linked this to her murder.

Patten remembered her "battling away with tyrants and cynics and bullies" and said: "She turned politics into an honourable adventure. Anna was Sweden and we hope to our very marrow that Sweden will go on being Anna."

There were musical tributes from pop star Eva Dahlgren and opera singer Anne Sofie von Otter. Swedish politician Agnetha Gille said that "even the orchestra cried" and a Social Democrat women's leader spoke tearfully of losing a "big sister".

Papandreou placed an olive branch from Greece among the red roses under a photo of Lindh, and his French colleague Dominique de Villepin said her enthusiasm had given politics a "perfume".

European Commission President Romano Prodi told Reuters as the mourners left that Europe had lost "a hope. She was so full of joy. We expected a lot from her for the future."

Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson, humbled by the euro defeat and bowed by Lindh's murder, said Swedes "will carry the memory of Anna with us for a long time like an invisible treasure to give us strength, joy and warmth".