An Russian Orthodox priest presided at the funeral for the seven men, who included Kursk commander Gennady Lyachin, at the Peter the Great military institute. The service was broadcast nationally on the NTV television network.

Another brief service was held at the city's Serafimskoe cemetery, and many of the relatives were in tears as three volleys rang out after the coffins, borne by an honour guard of cadets, were laid in the ground in the cemetery's "heroes' section."

The seven sailors were among the 118 crew on board who died when the nuclear-powered submarine sank under still unexplained circumstances in the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000.

Their bodies had been the last to be identified, Russian Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo told AFP.

Lyachin was the last to be buried, in line with naval tradition.

One of those attending the memorial service held a portrait of Lyachin bearing the legend "Heroes of the Kursk".

"Today we say goodbye to the heroes of our fleet," the commander of the Russian Navy Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov said.

"At the cost of their own lives, the commander and his team saved hundreds of thousands of other people's lives in northern Russia and in the Scandinavian countries by preventing a possible explosion of the nuclear reactor" on board the submarine, he said.

All Russian warships in the Northern Fleet -- which ply the Barents Sea -- as well as those in the Pacific Ocean, the Baltic and the Black Seas on Saturday lowered their flags to half-mast as a sign of respect, on Kuroyedov's orders, RIA Novosti news agency said.

After a long and painstaking operation which ended only this month, the authorities identified 115 of the 118 bodies or fragments of bodies recovered from the seabed.

The wreck of the Kursk was raised last October and transferred to dry dock in Roslyakovo near the northern port city of Murmansk.

In February, Kuroyedov gave the firmest indication to date that a torpedo explosion destroyed the Kursk, but was cautious not to say it was the definitive cause of the tragedy.

A preliminary report said a defective torpedo filled with a cheap but very volatile fuel that has not been used in Western navies in over four decades probably caused the disaster.

A final report is to be published in the latter half of the year.

Russia's Northern Fleet has been virtually confined to port since the Kursk sinking.

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