Pope John Paul II's funeral has been arranged to take place on Friday morning at 10am (9am Irish time), according to a source in the Vatican.
The decision was taken at a meeting of cardinals who had gathered in Rome this morning.
Archbishop Josef Clemens, secretary of the Vatican office for lay people, said the rites would be held on Friday in St Peter's Square.
Dr Clemens, the former secretary to top Vatican cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, also said not all the cardinal electors had arrived in Rome in time to attend today's first session.
The body of the Pope, who died on Saturday ending a papacy spanning 26 years, will be taken to St Peter's Basilica later in the day for public viewing.
The Pope's words read out at a requiem mass yesterday in St Peter's Square
Up to 200,000 worshippers gathered yesterday in St Peter's Square to hear the Pope's own words read out at a requiem mass. "It is love which converts hearts and gives peace," said the text, which was read out by an archbishop.
Inside the Vatican, the Pope's corpse, clad in crimson and white vestments, was put on view for the world by Vatican TV. Personal aides, cardinals, bishops, nuns, dignitaries and Vatican employees filed past the man they had served and loved for more than 25 years.
Hundreds of thousands of faithful will pay their respects when his body is transferred to the basilica today before the funeral, which many believe will be held on Friday.
Tens of thousands took to the streets of his native Poland for open-air masses, and officials in Krakow, where Pope John Paul II served as archbishop, said they wanted the Pontiff's heart to be buried in the city's cathedral alongside the country's medieval kings and saints.
Krakow Mayor Jacek Majchrowski said the city would like to inter the Pope's heart at Wawel Cathederal but said that "the rules are set by the church and we will respect them". The Pope's wishes have not been made public though most pontiff's in recent centuries have been buried in the St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.
The Pope is revered in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Poland as a national as well as spiritual leader for his role in inspiring resistance to the communist regime, which fell peacefully in 1989-90.
Elsewhere, flags flew at half mast in communist Cuba and above the Arab League headquarters in Cairo. China, long hostile to the Vatican, offered condolences as did several Muslim leaders.
Some liberal Catholic commentators tempered their tributes by criticising the Pope's traditionalist line on women, homosexuals and contraception, however, and what they called his laggardly response to the scandal of child sex abuse by the clergy.
John Paul was the third longest-serving pope in 2,000 years of Christianity, meaning he was able to hand-pick almost all the cardinals who will enter the conclave, stacking the odds that his conservative teachings will not be eroded.
The conclave must start within 15 to 20 days of his death, drawing together 117 cardinals aged under 80 in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel.
At today's meeting, the cardinals will have to swear an oath to maintain strict secrecy about "all matters in any way related to the election of the Roman pontiff".