[Photo: People carry a coffin containing the dead body of former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun as they arrive at Roh's hometown Bonghwa village in Gimhae, about 450 km.]

By Jon Herskovitz and Cheon Jong-woo

SEOUL, May 24 (Reuters) - Global leaders sent condolences and South Korea's government on Sunday planned for the funeral of former President Roh Moo-hyun who apparently jumped to his death after being hounded for weeks in a widening corruption scandal.

Roh, 62, whose single five-year term as president ended about 15 months ago, appears to have leapt from a cliff behind his rural home on Saturday morning, writing in a note: "Don't blame anybody. Please cremate me. And please leave a small tombstone near home."

Local police said the results of a provisional investigation indicate the death was suicide.

Local media said presidential aides met to discuss funeral arrangements for Roh, a self-taught lawyer who rose from rural poverty and won the presidency backed by a generation of students who hit the streets to fight for democracy in the 1980s.

Perhaps Roh's most celebrated moment came when he went to Pyongyang in 2007 for a summit with Kim Jong-il in what was only the second meeting of leaders of the divided peninsula.

North Korea reported on Roh's death on Sunday, saying in a one paragraph dispatch that reports indicated he took his life due to an intense investigation by prosecutors.

Roh was questioned last month by prosecutors on suspicion that his family took about $6 million ($8.74 million) in bribes from a shoe company CEO, which tarnished a reputation he tried to nurture of being a reformer who wanted to clean up government.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he was saddened to hear of Roh's death.

"During his tenure, President Roh contributed to the strong and vital relationship between the United States and the Republic of Korea," Obama said in a statement.

The South Korean public largely saw Roh as an ineffective leader whose government was marred by numerous missteps and overwhelmingly elected to replace him with a conservative businessman who pledged to undo Roh's economic policies.

The likelihood of suicide could boost sympathy for opponents of his successor President Lee Myung-bak, whose hardline policies have largely overturned the more accommodating approach of Roh in dealings with North Korea and strike-prone labour unions.

Mourners in Seoul paid respects to Roh at the weekend while tearful residents of his southeast Bongha Village hometown lined the streets when a coffin carrying Roh?s body arrived back from hospital on Saturday.

(Editing by Valerie Lee)