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Czech President Vaclav Klaus signs a condolence book for Vaclav Havel (19 Dec 2011)

The Czech president will discuss funeral preparations with Havel's widow

Mourners have gathered at Prague Castle, signing condolence books after the death of the Czech Republic's first President, Vaclav Havel.

A state funeral is expected to be held on Friday for the former dissident playwright, who died on Sunday morning aged 75.

Queues formed outside the castle on Monday and mourners filed past his closed coffin in a cultural centre.

Condolence books were also opened in public buildings in Slovakia.

Vaclav Havel became president of Czechoslovakia in 1989 after the fall of communism. When Slovakia split in 1993, he remained Czech leader until 2003.

Having suffered from respiratory problems for many years, he died at his country home in Hradecek, north-east of Prague, where he was being looked after by his wife Dagmar.

Vaclav Havel

Born in 1936 to a wealthy family in Czechoslovakia
Considered "too bourgeois" by communist government, studied at night school
Writing banned and plays forced underground after the 1968 Prague Spring
In 1977, co-authored the Charter 77 movement for democratic change
Faced constant harassment and imprisonment as Czechoslovakia's most famous dissident
Czechoslovakia's first post-communist president in December 1989
Oversaw transition to democracy, and 1993 division into the Czech Republic and Slovakia
Left office in 2003 and continued writing, publishing a new play in 2008 and directing first film in 2011

Life of Vaclav Havel in pictures

He had suffered "circulatory failure, the result of all health problems he had experienced, starting with pneumonia he had suffered from in prison", his doctor Tomas Bouzek told Czech media.

Havel had part of a lung removed during surgery for cancer in the 1990s and had moved to his country home for health reasons in the summer, returning briefly to the capital to meet Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama earlier this month.

One report said the former dissident had died after making plans with his wife for a quiet Christmas party. He had gone back to sleep and did not wake up again.

A week of mourning is being held in the Czech Republic and hundreds of candles were lit on Sunday night in Wencelas Square - once the focal point of the "Velvet Revolution" that overthrew the country's communist regime.

A former church turned by Havel into a cultural centre, The Prague Crossroads, was chosen to host his coffin until Wednesday, when his body will be taken to Prague Castle.

First to sign the books of condolence at the castle were Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the speaker of parliament and the archbishop of Prague.

Mr Klaus is due to meet Prime Minister Petr Necas and other officials to discuss preparations for the funeral. They are expected to consult the late leader's widow as well.