GUSTAVIA - French rock icon Johnny Hallyday was laid to rest in a private ceremony in the West Indies on Tuesday despite his first wife and many of his fans bemoaning a burial so far from mainland France.

Hundreds of thousands of people had thronged the center of Paris on Sunday for a "people's tribute", with at least 12 million people watching the ceremony for the star on television.

His burial on the French Caribbean island of St Barts was much more intimate, with 30 bikers accompanying his close family and friends including film star Jean Reno to a tiny seaside cemetery.

The ceremony, from which cameras were banned, started more than a half an hour late after one of the mourners was taken ill.

A rainbow appeared in the sky as his white coffin was lowered into the grave which was later showered with flowers.

Hours before, Hallyday's first wife Sylvie Vartan said she was heartbroken that he was being buried there.

"It is with a broken heart that I must accept the idea that Johnny will be buried today," the 1960s pop star said in a statement.

"It is very sad that Johnny will be so far from all of us who loved him so much," she added.

Veteran pop star Michel Polnareff, an old friend of the man they called the French Elvis, also said he found it "strange that his fans should be deprived of Johnny" in this way.

But the Caribbean island's leader Bruno Magras said that Hallyday had always wanted to be buried there.

His said the motorcycle-mad singer, who is credited with introducing France to rock 'n' roll, told him "several times he wanted to be buried here. He didn't want to go to Pere Lachaise," the famous Paris cemetery where the tomb of the Doors singer Jim Morrison has become a place of pilgrimage. - AFP