Royals and dignitaries attend on behalf of 170 nations

The coffin bearing the body of Baroness Thatcher is moved from the Palace of Westminster

Greece’s Crown Prince Pavlos and Princess Marie-Chantal of the Hellenes were among the mourners in attendance at St Paul’s yesterday.

They were joined by two acting heads of state – Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev and his Lithuanian counterpart Dalia Grybauskaite – as well as 11 serving prime ministers.

Among them were Kuwait’s Sheikh Jaber Mubark Al-Sabah, the son of the ruler of Kuwait Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmed Al Sabah; Italy’s Mario Monti; and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.

Guests take their seats ahead of the funeral service of Baroness Thatcher, at St Paul's Cathedral, central London.

Poland’s Donald Tusk, Canada’s Stephen Harper and the Czech Republic’s Petr Necas were among other world leaders in attendance.

A further 17 serving foreign ministers were sent by leaders who were unable to attend.

Other high-profile figures at the service included the former South African president FW de Klerk, who was the nation’s last apartheid-era leader. Neither Nelson Mandela nor anyone from his family attended.

Former Polish president Lech Walesa and former Australian prime minister John Howard were also among the guests.

The ceremonial funeral of Baroness Thatcher

There was a low-key presence from the US, with no top officials from the Obama administration present in the official American delegation. Instead it was led by former secretaries of state George Shultz and James Baker, who served during the Thatcher years.

Former vice-president Dick Cheney and fellow Republicans Henry Kissinger, Newt Gingrich and Ross Perot also attended the service as guests in a personal capacity.

Former US first lady Nancy Reagan, the widow of former Republican president Ronald Reagan – one of Baroness Thatcher’s closest political allies – was too frail to attend.

Her spokeswoman said she was “heartbroken” and had sent Fred Ryan, the chairman of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and a close friend, to the service to pay respects on her behalf.

Other notable absences from 2,000-strong congregation included the last Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, Thatcher’s Cold War contemporary, who was also unable to attend owing to ill-health.

Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was not invited to the ceremony amid continuing tensions over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands and the country’s ambassador to the UK, Alicia Castro, rejected an invitation extended out of diplomatic politeness.