24 Apr 2011

PM attends ANZAC commemorations in France

9:37 pm on 24 April 2011

Prime Minister John Key will visit the town of Le Quesnoy in Northern France as it remembers New Zealand troops who captured the town near the end of World War I.

He arrives at 11.45pm on Sunday (NZ time) and it's the first of a week of engagements for Mr Key in France and the United Kingdom.

Le Quesnoy was held by the Germans for most of World War I, but New Zealand troops took the town in one of their last actions of the war.

Mr Key will meet Le Quesnoy's mayor in the town square and take part in a parade, followed by a wreath laying at the French and New Zealand memorials.

Mr Key will also visit the town of Longueval and the nearby Caterpillar Valley Cemetery.

More than 1200 unknown New Zealanders who died in the Battle of Somme in 1916 are buried there.

Mr Key will then head to London for ANZAC celebrations.