It will involve a series of engagements in Dublin, Westmeath, Galway and Clare, and include a meeting with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and President Michael D Higgins.

Some 100,000 Poles filled Warsaw’s biggest public square today, joining together for a memorial and funeral Mass for the 96 people killed in a plane crash a week ago.

In a stirring speech, King Carl Gustaf called on Sweden’s nine million people today to draw together amid the uncertainty over the nation’s death toll in the Asian tsunami.

Swedish premier Goeran Persson has said Sweden’s tradition of openness has been damaged by the killing of foreign minister Anna Lindh.