German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to address both Houses of Parliament and have tea with the Queen during a one-day visit to the UK.
Mrs Merkel will follow in the footsteps of other leaders, such as Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan, in addressing MPs and peers.
She will later hold talks with the three main party leaders.
David Cameron is pulling out all the stops as he sees the German leader as crucial to his aims in Europe.
He is hoping to persuade Mrs Merkel to accept the need for EU treaty changes that would allow him to return powers from Brussels before a promised referendum on Britain’s EU membership in 2017.
The Guardian reported on Wednesday that Berlin was prepared to offer “limited opt-outs” to the UK over its future compliance with existing EU directives and to make sure some other regulations were more flexibly enforced.
‘Disappointed’
The newspaper said it was a sign of the lengths that Germany was willing to go to to ensure the UK remained a member of the EU amid fears in Europe that a referendum could lead to British withdrawal.
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