MOSCOW, December 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Orthodox Church council will meet on January 27-29 to elect a new patriarch, the Church's interim leader said on Wednesday.

Patriarch Alexy II died of heart failure at the age of 79 last Friday after leading the Church for more than 18 years, overseeing a revival of Orthodox Christianity following the collapse of the Soviet Union. He was buried on Tuesday at Moscow's Epiphany Cathedral after a lavish ceremony in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior attended by political and religious leaders.

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad told reporters: "A meeting of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church will open on January 27 and continue on January 28 and 29." The new patriarch will be enthroned on February 1.

He said the council's meeting would be preceded by a two-day Bishops' Council meeting.

Kirill, 62, who heads the Church's external affairs department, was elected interim leader the day after Alexy's death, and is seen as the most likely successor of Alexy II.

Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk, 59, the chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchy - the church equivalent of a presidential chief-of-staff - is also seen as a possible contender.

In his tribute to Alexy II at the service on Tuesday, Metropolitan Kirill, said: "Today his Holiness, standing before the face of God, can say that he left us with a different Church: no longer powerless and weak."

"The Church is with its people... Millions of people have realized that without God and his truth, there can be no human truth."