The most famed of the group was Haydee Tamara Bunke Bider, known as `Tania,' who met Guevara while working as an East German translator and went on to join his effort to spread revolution throughout Latin America.

A large-scale ceremony was planned today to inter the remains alongside those of Guevara and others of his comrades who fell in Bolivia in 1967. Guevara's remains were placed in a large mausoleum-monument here last year.

The ceremony falls on the 40th anniversary of the battle of Santa Clara, in which Guevara's rebel forces defeated the Cuban army of dictator Fulgencio Batista, who fled Cuba early on January 1, 1959.

Along with Bunke's remains are those of two Cubans and seven Bolivians who died in Guevara's failed effort to create a Cuban-style rebellion against the Boliviangovernment.

Residents of Santa Clara formed long lines throughout Tuesday to file past the coffins at a library on the city plaza, repeating on a smaller scale last year's honors for Guevara prior to his interment at the mausoleum.

Bunke, born in Argentina, met Guevara when he made a commercial visit to East Germany in 1960. She later came to Cuba and worked in government agencies before going to Bolivia on a clandestine mission to support Guevara's rebellion. She eventually joined his forces as a fighter.