Some 3,000 mourners paid their respects Monday to former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, who died Sunday at a Tokyo hospital six weeks after suffering a stroke and lapsing into a coma.

Following a wake in the evening, a private funeral -- to be attended by only close relatives -- will be held today.

A public funeral service, to be jointly organized by the Cabinet and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, will be held at 2 p.m. on June 8.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki said the funeral will take place at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, and that Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will chair the funeral organizing committee.

The Cabinet also decided to award Obuchi the Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum -- the highest award the government can present -- for his services to the nation, Aoki said.

Former prime ministers including Yasuhiro Nakasone, Takeo Fukuda, Masayoshi Ohira, Nobusuke Kishi and Takeo Miki were among those who received the decoration in the past.

Aoki said visitors from overseas are expected for the funeral, but added that arrangements have yet to be made. He said Japan has not received notice from the United States concerning the possibility of President Bill Clinton coming to Japan for the funeral services.

Clinton said Sunday in Washington that he wants to attend the event but that his presence would depend on his commitments at the time.

Aoki told reporters that judging by previous funerals for former leaders of Japan, between 4,000 and 5,000 people are likely to participate in Obuchi's service.

Aoki dismissed speculation that the public funeral was arranged by the LDP with a view to boosting public sympathy for Obuchi, which would work in favor of the party in the upcoming general election for the Lower House.

Mori is widely expected to dissolve the Lower House on June 2 and hold the election on June 25, with official campaigning to start on June 13.

In deciding a schedule for the election as well as Obuchi's funeral, LDP officials took into account the Emperor's return from a European tour on June 1. It is uncommon to hold such official events in the absence of the Emperor.

Wary of possible criticism that the LDP is trying to take advantage of public sympathy over Obuchi's death to capture votes, the party at one point considered holding the funeral before the dissolution of the Lower House by asking Mori to dissolve the Lower House on June 5 instead of June 28, the LDP sources said.

But the party decided against that option because funeral preparations may take longer than expected and the election campaigning period would not be long enough, the sources said.

A meeting of the leaders of the three ruling coalition parties that was to be held today to discuss matters including the timing of the election was pushed back to Thursday because it would clash with Obuchi's private funeral.