The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will visit New Orleans as part of their eight-day state visit to America, it was announced today.

The royal couple will fly into New Orleans, which suffered catastrophic damage during Hurricane Katrina, on Friday, said a spokesman from Clarence House, who declined to give any other details.

The Prince, who is making his first overseas trip with his new wife, flies to New York tomorrow for the first stage of their tour, where he will attend the opening of a memorial garden for British victims of the September 11th attacks and meet Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General.

On Tuesday evening, at the ritziest event organised in their honour, Prince Charles and Camilla will host hundreds of members of New York's high society at the recently reburbished Museum of Modern Art. Billionaire Donald Trump and comedian Jerry Seinfeld are expected to come.

On Wednesday, the royal couple will make their way to Washington for a private lunch with the Bush family before enjoying a full state dinner in the White House. In Washington, Camilla, who is President of the National Osteoporosis Society in the UK, is expected to speak at the National Institutes of Health on the subject of bones.

Stopping in New Orleans on the way, the pair will then head for the West Coast and San Francisco, where Prince Charles will have a chance to speak on the protection of the environment. Camilla will accompany him on a visit to a farmers’ market and to a local school that espouses healthy eating.

On the eve of the royal visit, a glance through the US press suggests that America, thoroughly smitten by the late Princess of Wales on her visit to Washington nearly 20 years ago, will be as polite as possible to the Prince and his new wife.

Newspapers have been direct, if a little sardonic, in advising Americans to be open-minded about Camilla, who is expected to endure a muted reception in the country where the Princess won millions of admirers after dancing with John Travolta at a White House reception.

"Every once in a while something happens that sorely tests the fundamental goodness of the American people, that challenges us to rise above the petty and to walk a righteous path. And so we are about to be tested: Royal newlyweds Charles and Camilla are coming to visit," said an article reprinted in dozens of regional American newspapers this weekend.

"Be nice," it went on. "Nothing about how Camilla compares with Princess Diana, the first wife, looks-wise. And no snide comments about her giant hats; that's the style for proper Englishwomen of a certain age. All that would be rude."

Other observers have limited themselves to analysing Camilla's sense of style. In an article in this morning's USA Today, a collection of hair stylists and magazine editors were invited to give fashion advice to Camilla, described as "58, shortish, very proper and handsome in that don't-care-a-fig British way."

Mandi Norwood, the British-born editor of Shop Etc magazine, called for a "Camilla-over", saying that the Duchess of Cornwall should "get stray hairs under control, her slightly off eye makeup should be polished up a bit, a nice lip liner, not too dark or heavy, to make herself look a little juicier, rather than just back from a hunt."

But generally speaking - and in keeping with the largely unglamorous tone of the trip - Americans are expected to be unmoved by their first glimpse of the Prince of Wales with his new wife. A poll run by USA Today, Gallup and CNN suggested that 81 per cent of Americans are not interested by the visit at all.

"Maybe a photo in the front but no big blowout," was the verdict of a spokeswoman for Us Weekly, a popular celebrity magazine.

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