Queen Elizabeth II to visit Ground Zero next month

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II will visit Ground Zero next month to pay tribute to the people killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York, Buckingham Palace said Wednesday.

The queen will lay a wreath at the site of the destroyed World Trade Center on July 6 with her husband, Prince Philip, as part of a trip to Canada and the United States beginning on June 28.

She will meet with relatives of the victims as well as representatives of the police and fire crews who responded to the attack, where Islamist hijackers crashed two airliners into the Twin Towers, killing almost 3,000 people.

While in New York, the 84-year-old monarch will also address the United Nations General Assembly for only the second time in her reign. She previously made a speech there in 1957.