Long lines of family members, officials including General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, police and soldiers streamed through the National Funeral House in downtown Hanoi on Wednesday. Some wept as they passed his flag-draped coffin.

"He devoted his whole life and made numerous contributions to the country's glorious revolutionary cause. His passing is a great loss to our Party, State and people," Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh said in a prayer ceremony broadcast live on state television.

Quang died on Friday aged 61. A government doctor said he had battled a rare viral illness for more than a year but did not reveal the virus.

He will be buried in his home village in northern Ninh Binh province on Thursday.

Flags flew at half-mast and all entertainment activities were cancelled during the two-day national mourning.

A career security officer, Quang rose through the ranks to be minister of public security in 2011 and was elected by the National Assembly as the nation's president in April 2016.

Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh has been named acting president, the country's first woman to hold that position. No date has been given for the election of a new president.

Analysts say Quang's death is unlikely to shake up the Communist country's politics, which are led collectively.

Australian Associated Press