Associated Press

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating 60 years on the throne - her diamond jubilee - this week.

London - Queen Elizabeth II's diamond jubilee tour of Britain will criss-cross the kingdom over five months, Buckingham Palace said on Wednesday as they released her itinerary.

The tour, to mark the 60th anniversary of her rise to the throne, will start with a visit to the central English city of Leicester on March 8, and end in Hampshire, south-east England, on July 25.

Queen Elizabeth, 85, and her husband Prince Philip, 90, will travel by car, air, the royal train and the luxury super-yacht Leander, which is being loaned by a car park tycoon.

“These visits will give Her Majesty the opportunity to express her thanks to people throughout the country for their continued support and loyalty,” Buckingham Palace said.

The tour is spaced out into more than a dozen separate legs and reflects a pace suited to their ages.

Other royals will visit countries of the Commonwealth to mark the jubilee, in visits announced in December.

According to the published schedule, the Queen and Prince Philip will visit Leicester, Manchester and north London, in March, Wales in April and other parts of England until June.

The couple will make visits in Scotland during their regular July week in residence in Edinburgh.

The tour finishes in Hampshire, taking in Cowes on the Isle of Wight and the New Forest.

Visits to Northern Ireland are not normally published in advance, for security reasons.

Queen Elizabeth returned to London by public train on Wednesday, following her traditional winter break at her private Sandringham estate in Norfolk, eastern England.

Prince Philip has been convalescing in Sandringham, having been successfully treated on Christmas Eve for a blocked coronary artery.

The anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's 60th year on the throne was on Monday.

Normally she spends the day in private, reflecting on the death of her father, king George VI. However, this year, she carried out two small-scale engagements in Norfolk. - Sapa-AFP