London, Dec 15 (IANS): South Africa's Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu will attend the funeral of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela Sunday.

"Tutu will be travelling to Qunu early tomorrow (Sunday) morning to attend Tata Madiba's funeral," BBC quoted Tutu's spokesman Roger Friedman as saying Saturday.

Earlier, Tutu had said he cancelled his flight to the Eastern Cape to attend Mandela's funeral after he received no indication that his name was on the guest list.

"Much as I would have loved to attend the service to say a final farewell to someone I loved and treasured, it would have been disrespectful to Tata (Mandela) to gatecrash what was billed as a private family funeral," Tutu said in a statement.

"Had I or my office been informed that I would be welcome there is no way on earth that I would have missed it."

Mandela will be laid to rest at Qunu village, in the Eastern Cape province Sunday, where he spent much of his childhood.