Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will meet for the first time since the US election at the funeral of former president Jimmy Carter in Washington on Thursday.

President Joe Biden will deliver the eulogy for his fellow Democrat at the Episcopal church that has been a traditional venue for send-offs of US presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan to George H.W. Bush.

The service caps a week of mourning that has seen Americans quietly filing past the flag-draped coffin in the US Capitol to pay their respects to Mr Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100 in his home state of Georgia.

Mr Biden revealed in an interview with USA Today that Mr Carter had asked him to do the honours when the pair – longstanding friends – met for the last time four years ago.

“Carter was a decent man. I think Carter looked at the world not from here but from here, where everybody else lives,” Mr Biden said as he gestured from above his head towards his heart.

The funeral will be a rare gathering of the “Presidents Club” – Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Donald Trump – who are expected to join around 3,000 mourners at the service.

Vice President Kamala Harris will be in attendance, after last meeting Mr Trump at a September 11 memorial last year. It is not known if Hillary Clinton, who Mr Trump defeated in the presidential race in 2016, will also be there.

Thursday has been designated a national day of mourning, with federal offices closed.

The first president to reach 100, Mr Carter had been in hospice care since February 2023 in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, where he died and will be buried next to his late wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter.