Il Nuovo Postiglione - Norway mourns passing of King Harald as son King Haakon VIII ascends throne

Scores of Norwegians flocked to the Royal Palace in Oslo, where mountains of flowers lay on the ground after more than 20,000 people paid their respects Friday to the late king who served 35 years on the throne.

Tributes also poured in from European monarchies and world leaders, including US President Donald Trump, who hailed the memory of "a strong, proud, and greatly respected man".

"Everyone is sad, and the king was a man whom everyone respected. A fine man, so I think everyone feels a bit down today," Anne Lobbe, 35, told AFP outside the palace early Saturday.

Haakon was due to hold audiences later in the day with the leaders of the Church of Norway, parliament and supreme court.

A national period of mourning has been declared in the Scandinavian kingdom. No date has been set for the late king's funeral.

Haakon is due to address the Norwegian public in the coming days, and will swear an oath of allegiance in its main chamber on Tuesday.

The 53-year-old takes over a monarchy hailed for its modernity and modesty but recently beset by a string of scandals.

"An era has ended. A new one begins. The king is dead. Long live the king," Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said in a speech shortly after meeting the new monarch on Friday.

City halls across Norway put out condolence books on Saturday for the public to write personal messages.

One of the first to write a message in Oslo's City Hall, Unni Zetterquist Thorsen, 68, told AFP she had thanked the late king for his "patience and strength through difficult times in Norway".

"He's essentially been a steady support," she said.

- National mourning -

The late king's casket was brought from Oslo University Hospital to the royal palace on Friday.

The public will be able to view the casket in the palace chapel on dates to be fixed.

Haakon and his wife, Queen Mette-Marit, are not expected to be crowned -- a practice Norway abolished in 1908.

But like his father and grandfather before him, Haakon could choose to have his reign blessed during a ceremony at Trondheim Cathedral, where Norwegian kings were crowned between 1814 and 1906.

Harald, who was Europe's oldest reigning monarch, had been in hospital in Oslo since August 17, suffering from haemolytic anaemia, a condition caused by an abnormally rapid destruction of red blood cells that leads to fatigue and shortness of breath.

Store said Harald, who ascended to the throne in 1991, was "a king of his time and for his time".

He said Harald accompanied Norway through decades of enormous change during which the country "grew richer, we became more numerous, and we became more diverse".

Harald was widely seen as the embodiment of an open and tolerant Norway.

Many of those AFP spoke with pointed in particular to Harald's speech after neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in 2011 -- Norway's worst massacre since World War II.

Harald "was someone who always seemed to find the words that brought us together and gave us a sense of security," Caroline Vagle, a reporter for magazine Se og Hor, told AFP.

Harald faced mounting health problems in his final years, forcing him to scale back his official schedule.

But he always ruled out abdicating, adamant that he had taken a lifelong oath before the Norwegian parliament.

The past year has been a turbulent one for the Norwegian royal family.

Harald's wife Queen Sonja, also 89, was briefly admitted to hospital in May due to heart problems.

Haakon's wife Mette-Marit is under scrutiny for her ties to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In June, Mette-Marit's son from a relationship prior to her marriage to Haakon, Marius Borg Hoiby, was sentenced to four years in prison for two rapes.

Suffering herself from a serious lung disease, Mette-Marit, 53, underwent a lung transplant in July.

F.S.Ferrari--INP