Fed: Howard leaves today for Gallipoli, France

AAP General News (Australia)
04-21-2000
Fed: Howard leaves today for Gallipoli, France

CANBERRA, April 21 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard leaves later today to visit Gallipoli
and the battlefields of the Somme, as Australia prepares to commemorate the 85th anniversary
of the Anzac landing.

He will meet Turkey's president and prime minister and lay a wreath at a memorial to
former Turkish leader Ataturk before heading for Gallipoli.

Mr Howard will attend the dawn service at Anzac Cove along with New Zealand Prime Minister
Helen Clark.

The service also will mark the opening of a new memorial site, built to counter overcrowding
at the Ari Burnu war cemetery.

In France, the prime minister will make a pilgrimage to the World War I battlefields
of the Somme in France, where his father and grandfather both fought.

Mr Howard will be away for almost two weeks, also visiting Jerusalem and Paris where
he will meet Israeli and French political leaders and attend a Holocaust Day memorial,
among other engagements.

AAP kmh/cjh/bwl

KEYWORD: ANZAC HOWARD DAYLEAD

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.