Around 65,000 people paid their respects to Benedict XVI on Monday

The pope emeritus died on New Year's Eve aged 95 after becoming the first pope in 600 years to abdicate in February 2013.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Premier Giorgia Meloni were among the first people to visit the lying in state on Monday, when around 65,000 people paid their respects.

The lying in state will continue on Wednesday.

Pope Francis will preside over his predecessor's funeral on Thursday in St Peter's Square. Benedict XVI will be placed in the former tomb of Pope Saint John Paul II in the bowels of St Peter's, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Monday.

The late Polish pope, who died in 2005 aged 85, was moved from the tomb and up into the Basilica following his beatification in 2011.

John Paul II went on to become a saint in 2014 in a joint canonization with an earlier pope, John XXIII.

Bruni said Benedict would be buried immediately after his funeral on Thursday. (ANSA).