COLLEVILLE SUR MER - US President Barack Obama joined the leaders of Britain and France and hundreds of World War II veterans Saturday to mark the 65th anniversary of D-Day on the beaches of Normandy.
As star guest of the commemorations, Obama was to deliver a speech before 9,000 guests and 200 US D-Day veterans at a clifftop graveyard in northern France which has become a symbol of America's sacrifice for Europe's freedom.
"We will never forget the pain or the extent of the suffering and may we never renounce the dream of peace and justice for humanity," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, in an opening address.
Obama and his wife Michelle flew from Paris to the Normandy city of Caen at noon (1000 GMT), where they were be greeted by Sarkozy and First Lady Carla Bruni for lunch and a bilateral meeting.
Both presidential couples then went to the American war cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, which overlooks the sand dunes where Allied troops opened a new western front against Nazi Germany during World War II.
Obama's Normandy visit concluded an history-laden tour of Europe that took in the German concentration camp of Buchenwald and the city of Dresden, flattened by Allied bombs in February 1945 killing an estimated 35,000 people.
After paying homage to the 9,387 American soldiers buried in Colleville, he will spend Saturday night in Paris and head back to Washington on Sunday.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Prince Charles and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined him at the American cemetery, which has been signed over by France to the United States in perpetuity.
Brown and the prince also attended a ceremony in honour of Britain's World War II dead, in the presence of French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and British veterans, in the nearby cathedral at Bayeux.
In a sermon during the service, the Reverend Patrick Irwin paid tribute to the "chapter of bravery" written by the fallen.
"The least we can do is to work for a future they will never see," he said.
The British and French prime ministers then headed from Colleville to a final ceremony in Arromanches, site of a port built for the Allied landings.
Prince Charles's attendance was only announced this week, defusing an embarrassing diplomatic tussle over whether Queen Elizabeth II should attend, which was cast by some British newspapers as a French snub for the monarch, 83, who personally experienced World War II.
Britons account for the lion's share of the 1,500 ex-servicemen expected in Normandy, according to the memorial body Normandie Memoire.
With most now aged 85 or more, organisers are aware this may be the last time large numbers of ex-servicemen can attend -- and they have put them centre stage at the 450 D-Day ceremonies, firework displays and village balls.
British, Canadian and US divisions, plus units from France and other occupied countries, crossed the Channel at dawn on June 6, 1944, to storm beaches codenamed Omaha, Utah, Juno, Gold and Sword.
In what remains the biggest amphibious assault in history, by the end of day one some 156,000 Allied personnel had been landed in France.
An estimated 10,000 Allied troops were left dead, wounded or missing, while Germany lost between 4,000 and 9,000, and thousands of French civilians were killed.
The Normandy village of Colleville is at the centre of a draconian security lockdown for Obama's visit, with some 3,000 police and gendarmes deployed and roads and highways cut across the region.
But locals have rolled out the red-carpet despite the security headache with streets festooned with Allied country flags and soldiers' photographs, and military enthusiasts patrolling in period jeeps and motorcycles.