State visit for Mexican president

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The Queen will host a state visit to the UK by President Felipe Calderon of Mexico in March next year.

The visit is expected to include talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and a state banquet with the Queen.

The Mexican embassy and the Foreign Office said the full details of the visit had yet to be completed.

There have been two previous state visits by Mexican presidents during the Queen's reign - Luis Echeverria in 1973 and Miguel de la Madrid in 1985.

Drugs crackdown

The event will be the 97th state visit to the UK since the Queen ascended to the throne in 1952. The most recent was the high-profile visit by French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carl Bruni in March.

Mr Calderon was elected president in 2006 and has launched a crackdown on the country's drug cartels.

But there have been protests in Mexico over the rising levels of drug-related violence which have accounted for hundreds of deaths this year.

Mr Calderon is a member of the National Action Party and served as energy secretary from 2002 to 2004.