LOS ANGELES, June 7: Crowds gathered before dawn to pay respects to Ronald Reagan on Monday at the start of a week of tribute to the 40th US president, hailed as "unfailingly kind and courteous" during a stewardship that hastened the end of the Cold War and revived American spirits.

Though the skies were overcast and temperatures cool, people queued up at a community college near the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, waiting to be shuttled to the casket of the former president, who died on Saturday at the age of 93 of pneumonia and after a long battle with Alzheimer's.

Dozens of buses were on hand to carry a steady stream of mourners, expected to number in the thousands, from the college to the Western-themed library where the former president will be laid to rest at the end of the week.

Traders at the New York Stock Exchange marked Reagan's memory with two minutes of silence after the opening bell. Similar tributes were expected across the country.

Reagan's vice president through two terms, former President George Bush, hailed the Republican icon for reshaping the party into a dominant, conservative political force. -AFP