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The body of Poland's late president arrived back home on Sunday as his stunned nation mourned the loss of much of its elite in a jet crash in Russia that investigators said was not due to technical faults.

Draped in a red and white Polish flag, the coffin bearing Lech Kaczynski was carried onto a red carpet at Warsaw Airport, where it was met by his identical twin brother Jaroslaw, a former premier, and a presidential guard of honour.

Before his body was flown home, Poles observed a two-minute silence on the stroke of midday, which was marked by the wailing of sirens.

Motorists in Warsaw pulled up in the streets to stand in solemn attention while churches were packed at the start of a week-long national mourning.

Thousands of people observed the silence outside the presidential palace in central Warsaw in front of a sea of candles and flowers left by grief-stricken residents at a mass vigil overnight.

In Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was among those who attended a ceremony at the site of the crash near the western city of Smolensk before he watched the body of Kaczynski being placed on a Warsaw-bound plane.

All 96 people aboard the Tupolev Tu-154 jet were killed when it crashed into a forest and caught fire during thick fog on Saturday, including a host of top state, military and religious officials.

The president's twin was among the first relatives to go to Russia to identify the victims.

Putin is leading an official investigation into the crash, but Russian officials have already said the Polish pilots ignored air traffic control warnings that they were flying too low.

"The recordings that we have confirm that there were no technical problems with the plane," chief investigator Alexander Bastrykin said during a meeting with Putin at the site of the crash.

Fragments of the fuselage, air traffic control recordings and the plane's "black boxes" are being studied in the probe into the causes of the crash, Russia's investigative committee said in a statement.

A Russian transport ministry spokesman said the voice and data recorders were at a special laboratory in the presence of Polish officials.

"Everything must be done to establish the reasons for this tragedy in the shortest possible time," said Putin.

The Russian-built jet was taking the presidential party to a memorial service for 22,000 Poles massacred by Soviet troops in World War II when it hit tree tops in fog while approaching Smolensk airport.

The symbolism of the president's mission to a country which has long been a rival of Poland only added to the national shock over the deaths.

Kaczynski's populist nationalism often made him a divisive figure at home and in Europe. But the nation united in grief.

At Warsaw's Church of the Saviour, Pawel Zak questioned the wisdom of so many key figures travelling together.

"How could they have allowed all these people - the president, all the military chiefs of staff, the central bank governor - to fly together in an old plane? It was a tragic mistake," said Zak, a 45-year-old photographer.

Besides the 60-year-old head of state, the crash killed his wife Maria, Poland's military chief of staff and the heads of the main services, its central bank governor, an archbishop and members of parliament.

The Tu-154 had already made three approaches to Smolensk airport when it crashed in the fog, according to witnesses and airport officials. At least one other plane had been diverted to another airport.

Lieutenant General Alexander Alyoshin, deputy head of the Russian air force, said the Polish pilots had ignored warnings from air traffic controllers that they were too low.

The crash was only a few kilometres (miles) from the Katyn Forest where the delegation was to have attended a memorial service for the Polish officers and troops killed in 1940 by Soviet troops acting on orders from Josef Stalin.

The service was intended to help reconciliation between Poland and Russia, two decades after the end of the Cold War and the ensuing demise of communism.

Russia ordered a day of national mourning for Monday as hundreds of people showed their grief in Moscow by laying flowers and lighting red and white candles at the gates of the Polish embassy.

Polish communities around the world held their own special church services while global leaders expressed condolences.

US President Barack Obama remembered "a distinguished statesman...dedicated to advancing freedom" while German Chancellor Angela Merkel was "deeply shocked".

AFP/ms