ST JOHNS, Antigua (CMC):

The Antigua and Barbuda government says it will accord a State funeral to the island's second premier, Sir George Walter, who died on Tuesday.

Sir George, 79, died of a heart attack at the Holberton Hospital after being hospitalised for a week.

In a statement issued late Tuesday, the Baldwin Spencer administration announced that a Cabinet committee headed by Labour Minister Dr Jacqui Quinn Leandro had been set up to plan the State funeral.