WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush and thousands of dignitaries welcomed Britain's Queen Elizabeth II to the White House Monday with an honor guard and 21-gun salute ahead of a glittering state dinner.
The monarch and her husband, Prince Philip, were greeted on the south lawn of the presidential mansion in brilliant sunshine by about 7,000 guests, including members of Congress, Bush cabinet officials and British diplomats.
"Our two nations hold fundamental values in common," Bush said. "We honor our traditions and our shared history.
"We understand and accept the burdens of global leadership," he said. "And we have built our special relationship on the surest foundations: our deep and abiding love of liberty."
Elizabeth, in a black hat and wearing a white jacket trimmed in black over a black skirt, and Bush stood on a red-carpeted podium as the national anthems of both countries rang out.
To mark the queen's first state visit to the United States in 16 years, the White House polished its best china and crystal tableware for the white-tie and tails banquet in the evening -- the most formal yet of the Bush presidency.
"We've done everything we can think of to do to make it really a wonderful evening for her, and I know the American people are thrilled that she's here in the United States," First Lady Laura Bush told ABC television Monday.
"We're so thrilled to have this chance to host her, and to show her the strong affection that the American people have for the British, and for our long-time allies and our best friends," the president's wife added.
Bush has hosted eight official visits during his six years as president -- including by leaders from Poland, Kenya, Japan and China -- but it is the first time he has applied the white-tie treatment.
"The United States has no closer ally and friend than Great Britain," the White House said in a statement detailing the tightly coordinated protocol for the royal visit to the US capital.
The White House said the tables for the dinner would be adorned with "historically significant pieces" from its collection, including gold-rimmed china, the president's "house crystal" and English vermeil gilded silver.
Among the 134 diners will be Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and General Peter Pace, chairman of the US military joint chiefs of staff.
Lampposts near the White House were festooned with Union Jacks and US flags as helicopters and sharpshooters formed part of a tight security cordon around the mansion -- which was burned down by British soldiers in 1814.
After seeing the New World's first permanent English settlement in Virginia and the Kentucky Derby horse race, the royal couple touched down at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington on Sunday.
The 81-year-old queen last came to the United States in 1991 when Bush's father was president. Her first visit had been in 1957, five years after she ascended the throne, when she met then-president Dwight Eisenhower.
On Friday, Elizabeth and Philip, 85, toured Jamestown in Virginia to mark the 400th anniversary of the settlement's founding by 104 ill-prepared English men and boys -- an event that gave rise to the world's greatest superpower.
The queen said the Jamestown landing was "a symbol of the convergence of civilizations, of the spread of the rule of law, of the growth of representative democracy -- and also the symbol of friendship: the deep and enduring friendship between the United States and the United Kingdom."
Before flying home Tuesday, the couple were to host the Bushes for a reciprocal dinner, tour a NASA space flight center and a children's medical center, and lay a wreath at the World War II National Memorial.
05/07/2007 15:14 GMT