Plans for the Queen to lead the national commemorations to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War were announced yesterday by the Government.

After attending a service of remembrance in Westminster Abbey on Sunday, July 10 - designated National Commemoration Day - the Queen will address the nation from Horse Guards Parade.

A salvo from the guns of HMS Belfast, moored in the River Thames, will mark the start of a period of silence, and a Lancaster bomber will drop a million poppies in the Mall during a flypast by wartime aircraft.

Showbusiness stars, including Bruce Forsyth, Simon Callow, Petula Clark, Jane Horrocks, Claire Sweeney and Robert Hardy will take part in a show on Horse Guards Parade.

Announcing the details of the commemorations, Defence Secretary John Reid said: "This will enable us to demonstrate to those who lived through the war at home and abroad that the sacrifices their generation made and the hardships that they endured are still acknowledged, valued and appreciated."

Other events include a "living museum" in St James's Park - running from July 4 to 10 - with wartime exhibits from many of the country's leading collections.

The Government has selected July 10 as the date for the main national commemorations marking the end of the war, falling midway between VE Day, marking victory in Europe, and VJ Day, marking victory over Japan.

Mr Reid said the day would be "set in context" by the service of remembrance at Westminster Abbey attended by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will give the address.

The Queen will then host a veterans' lunch, attended by 2,000 people, in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.

In the afternoon, it is expected that 12,000 people - including the Queen and the Prime Minister - will attend the Reflections of World War II commemorative show on Horse Guards Parade.

To end the show, veterans' organisations will symbolically hand over their standards to representatives of the younger generation.

The Queen will then lead the massed standards assembled in The Mall to the forecourt of Buckingham Palace, where, in scenes intended to recall the events of 1945, the Royal Family will gather on the balcony to watch a flypast of wartime aircraft.