WARSAW: The body of President Lech Kaczynski was returned to Poland on Sunday, where it was greeted by grieving dignitaries and thousands of Poles lining the route from Warsaw's airport to the presidential palace.

The plane carrying Kaczynski's body arrived from the airport in Smolensk, Russia where had and 95 others had been heading Saturday to honor 22,000 Polish officers slain by the Soviet secret police in 1940 in the western Soviet Union.

Kaczynski's twin brother knelt on the ground and pressed his head against the flag-draped coffin before rising and crossing himself.

The coffen was escorted by 10 soldiers from the back of the plane as somber music played. Warsaw Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz was among seven priests and military chaplains who led prayers at the airport and sprinked holy water on the coffin.

There was no sign of the twins' ailing mother Jadwiga, who has been hospitalized. The president had canceled several foreign trips lately to be by her side. Also on the tarmac were Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Marta Kacyznski, the only child of the president and his wife, Maria, who also perished in the crash.

Thousands of people stood silent in the streets to mourn Kaczynski and the dozens of political, military and religious leaders killed in a Russian plane crash that ravaged the top levels of Poland's elite.

Church bells pealed at noon and emergency sirens shrieked for nearly a minute before fading into silence. Hundreds bowed their heads, eyees closed, in front of the presidential palace. Buses and trams halted in the streets. No date for a funeral has been set.

The death of the president and much of the state and defense establishment in Russia, en route to commemorating one of the saddest events in the neighboring nations' long, complicated history, was laden with tragic irony.

''He taught Poles how to respect our traditions, how to fight for our dignity, and he made he made his sacrifice there at that tragic place,'' said mourner Boguslaw Staron, 70.

Among the dead were Poland's army chief of staff, the navy chief commander, and heads of the air and land forces. At the Field Cathedral of the Polish Army in Warsaw, hundreds gathered for a morning Mass and left flowers and written condolences. Government spokesman Pawel Gras said the country's armed forces and state offices were operating normally despite the devastating losses.

The acting president, Parliament Speaker Bronislaw Komorowski, said he would call for early elections within 14 days, in line with the constitution. The vote must be held within another 60 days.

Kacyznski had said he would seek a second term in presidential elections this fall but was expected to face an uphill struggle against Komorowski and his governing party, the moderate, pro-business Civic Platform.

Kacyznski's nationalist conservative Law and Justice Party could benefit, however, from the support of a country mourning the loss of their president particularly with elections now set to take place by late June. -AP