Barack Obama gets audience with Queen

In a break with protocol, the Queen has invited Barack Obama to Buckingham Palace when he visits London next month. According to the Daily Telegraph, she has asked the American President to what is being described in Washington and London as a "getting to know you" session.

The invitation is highly unusual because visiting heads of state normally only get to meet Her Majesty if they are on an official state visit, whereas Obama will be in town as one of a number of leaders attending the G20 economic summit, hosted by Gordon Brown.

The President and First Lady are due to arrive on Air Force One at Stansted Airport sometime on the afternoon of March 31. They will then be flown on Marine One, the presidential helicopter, to Winfield House, the American ambassador’s residence in Regent's Park.

The following day, Obama will travel the short distance to Buckingham Palace by motorcade for what one official in Washington described as "an informal, formal meeting”. A source told the Daly Telegraph: "There is a wish to do these things discreetly when they meet for the first time."

Since her coronation in 1952, the Queen has met every US leader apart from Lyndon Johnson, the man who stepped into the shoes of John F Kennedy following his assassination in 1963.

Following his trip to the Palace, Obama and his wife will join the other visiting world leaders and their wives for an official dinner at Downing Street, hosted by Gordon and Sarah Brown. The one-day summit will take place the next day in the less salubrious setting of the ExCel exhibition centre in Docklands.

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