Clinton to address Blair cabinet on Thursday

President Clinton will underline the closeness of his relationship with Tony Blair's new government by addressing the entire cabinet on Thursday.

The move, thought to be the first of its kind since the 1960s, is a coup for Mr Blair who will present the occasion as a reinvigoration of the transatlantic special relationship. News of Mr Clinton's plans came as it emerged that Mr Blair last week held a private meeting with Lady Thatcher in Downing Street to discuss foreign policy issues.

Mr Blair wanted a meeting to learn the views of his predecessor-but-one on Anglo-American relations, Nato, and advice on her approach to summits. Lady Thatcher visited Mr Blair at No 10 for around half an hour on the eve of his first summit as prime minister, a meeting with EU leaders in Noordwijk, in Holland.

Lady Thatcher, who is said to have been alarmed by the exclusion of a mention of the transatlantic relationship in the Foreign Office's "mission statement", laid particular emphasis on relations with the US.

Mr Blair has long admiredLady Thatcher's style of leadership, but Thursday's meeting is thought to have been their first one-to-one.

Mr Clinton's day-long visit to London will come as he breaks his return journey from Holland and amid celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan.

Cabinet will begin as usual at 10.30am, with the American president arriving around one hour later to speak to ministers. There will then be a lunch hosted by the prime minister, with Mr Clinton and his wife, Hillary, leaving in the evening. The occasion will be the first meeting between Hillary Clinton and Cherie Blair, the two "first ladies", who, given their legal backgrounds and their husbands' political ones, have been compared by commentators.

The visit is likely to continue the Blair government's foreign policy honeymoon. At last week's European summit the new government's more positive approach to Europe was welcomed by other leaders. On Tuesday the prime minister will attend his first meeting on the world stage at a Nato/Russia summit in Paris. A bilateral meeting with President Yeltsin is expected.

The American president's address is thought to be the first of its kind since President Nixon held a meeting with Harold Wilson's Cabinet in February 1969. Then the result was not universally acclaimed. Richard Crossman, in his diaries, described the event as "a sort of ghastly parody of a Cabinet". The president talked about youth and race (Crossman found "nothing new in it"); then each minister made a contribution.

On Thursday the two leaders are expected to cover a range of issues including Northern Ireland and Bosnia.