Colombo: Students, space enthusiasts, politicians and Buddhist monks in Colombo paid respects on Friday to the late science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke.

Clarke died Wednesday at the age of 90 after suffering breathing problems. His remains were put on display for public viewing at his home in the capital of his adopted country of Sri Lanka.

Kavan Ratnatunga, a Sri Lankan-born astronomer and long-time associate of the author, said, "He fascinated a lot of us into being interested in space and astronomy."

Clarke won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future.

Born in western England on December 16, 1917, Clarke earlier worked as a clerk and served in the Royal Air Force during World War 11 before moving to Sri Lanka in 1956.

Clarke's 1968 story "2001: A Space Odyssey", written simultaneously as a novel and screenplay with director Stanley Kubrick, was a prophecy of artificial intelligence run amok.

Clarke was to be buried on Saturday at Colombo's general cemetery in a plot owned by his friend and business partner with whom the writer lived for decades.