Leaders gather for Madrid funeral
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| | ON CNN TV | Watch CNN for live coverage of the funeral service in Madrid.
11:30 GMT Wednesday
11:30 a.m. London
12:30 p.m. Madrid
12:30 p.m. Berlin
6:30 a.m. U.S. ET
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MADRID, Spain -- World leaders are gathering in Madrid for a memorial service for the victims of the March 11 terrorist bombings.
Spain's royal family, headed by King Juan Carlos, will lead mourners at Wednesday's state funeral, which begins with midday Mass at Almudena Cathedral.
Though Spaniards have endured decades of Basque separatist attacks, the March 11 terror strikes were the worst against a Western country since the September 11 attacks in the United States.
The bombings of crowded commuter trains during morning rush hour have been dubbed "Spain's 9/11."
On Tuesday, four more suspects -- three Moroccan men and a Spaniard -- were charged in association with the train bombings. The death toll was also revised Tuesday to 190. Originally it was thought 202 had died in the bombings. (Full story)
Presiding over Wednesday's Mass will be the archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela.
"To kill your own kind, to kill a brother, is to attack God himself," Rouco Varela said in a memorial service last week at Almudena Cathedral, a 19th-century granite structure next to the Royal Palace in Madrid's old quarter.
It will be the first state funeral for people outside the royal family in the history of Spain's new democracy, restored after former dictator Francisco Franco died in 1975.
In attendance will be British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who arrived in the Spanish capital Tuesday, as well as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Blair's aides have not said whether he will raise the issue of a possible withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq when he meets with Spanish Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero.
The newly elected Socialist leader criticized the war in Iraq during his election campaign and has recently threatened to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq if coalition forces are not placed under U.N. control.
The subject may come up during talks between Zapatero and Powell.
Zapatero last week rejected an appeal from U.S. President George W. Bush to stand by the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
Also among the VIPs set to attend Wednesday's funeral are Britain's Prince Charles, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and more than a dozen other heads of state or government.
Extra security will be in place for the event, with personnel boosted at Madrid's two airports, roads leading to the city and the route the official motorcades will take to the cathedral.
The Mass is almost certain to bring much of Madrid to a standstill.
Giant television screens have been erected in several popular locations in the city to carry the ceremony live.
A monitor has also been set up in Puerta del Sol -- a bustling plaza where one of several makeshift memorials to the victims sprang up the day after the bombings.
The memorial there features a sea of red candles as well as photographs, notes, newspaper clippings and flowers.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
