King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain will join world leaders attending Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican on Saturday, the royal palace told AFP.

Addressing a reception in Madrid on Tuesday, Felipe said the 88-year-old Argentine pontiff transcended the Catholic Church to become “an enormous ethical beacon of our world, of our time”.

The government is yet to confirm if Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will also travel for the funeral.

The delegation Spain will send “will show the enormous institutional respect we had for Pope Francis, but also the love the Spanish people have for him,” Justice Minister Felix Bolanos told television channel Telecinco.