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.
But the BBC's Berlin Correspondent Stephen Evans said sources close to Mrs Merkel were playing down expectations of new proposals for the kind of changes British Conservatives wanted to see.
End QuoteShe may well agree to concessions to Britain - but not immediately"
One Merkel adviser said: "Those expecting a thunderbolt in the speech will be disappointed."
Instead, Mrs Merkel will offer warm words about Britain and her desire to keep the country in the EU. But, says Evans, people close to the German leader are also expressing dismay that, as they see it, the British government has not come to them to spell out what changes it wants.
Although not an official state visit - Mrs Merkel is not head of state - the trip has been planned for months, with both governments aware of its political significance at a time of looming change in Europe.
Mrs Merkel is expected to speak for half an hour, in German, in front of an invited audience of dignitaries in the Palace of Westminster, including MPs, peers, diplomats, business and cultural leaders.
Leaders previously accorded the honour of addressing both House of Parliament include French Presidents Charles de Gaulle, pictured above, Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Francois Mitterrand, US presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the Tibetan opposition leader the Dalai Lama, Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi and former Russian president Boris Yeltsin - click here for a full list.
Mrs Merkel's predecessor, Willy Brandt, addressed both chambers in 1970.
'Not a priority'After Thursday's address, Chancellor Merkel will meet a delegation of MPs and peers before having a working lunch with the prime minister at Downing Street.
The two centre-right leaders, both of whom govern in a coalition with other parties, will hold a press conference in which Mrs Merkel is likely to be pressed on whether she will support the UK's call for future treaty change in the EU.
David Cameron has said that if the Conservatives win the 2015 election, he will seek to renegotiate the terms of the UK's membership of the European Union and put the outcome to an in-out referendum of the British people in 2017.
But he faces a battle to convince leaders of other EU member states to agree to the treaty changes he will need, with French President Francois Hollande recently telling the prime minister, on a one-day visit to the UK, that it was "not a priority".
Mr Cameron is seen as having a warmer relationship with Mrs Merkel than Mr Hollande, although Berlin was angered by his decision to veto a fiscal compact in December 2011 in response to the eurozone debt crisis.
The prime minister and his wife Samantha visited the German chancellor's country residence last April, following a visit made by Mrs Merkel and her husband to Chequers in 2010.
The leader of Mr Cameron's junior coalition partners, the Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and opposition leader Ed Miliband, who both oppose calls for a referendum and who have warned that Conservative calls for a root-and-branch renegotiation will alienate EU leaders, will hold separate meetings with Mrs Merkel.
The German chancellor will round off the day by having tea at Buckingham Palace.
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