President Bush will meet families of soldiers killed in Iraq, officials have confirmed.

Ahead of the president's historic visit to Britain, the Ministry of Defence confirmed that George W Bush will meet families of the 54 service personnel killed in Iraq.

The private meeting will take place at an undisclosed location.

"President Bush will be meeting the families," a spokesman told ePolitix.com. "It will be a private meeting and, for obvious reasons, no details about it will be given out."

It will be the most politically-sensitive part of the president's trip.

Ahead of his visit, President Bush paid tribute to those who lost their loved ones in Iraq.

"There's two messages. One, the prayers of the American people and the prayers of the president are with them, as they suffer," he said.

"Secondly, that I will tell them that their loved ones did not die in vain."

The meeting has drawn a mixed response from the families.

Officials have sought to play the meeting down - mindful of the fact that 11 members of the armed forces were killed and four injured by US "friendly fire".

Mike Aston, the father of Corporal Russell Aston, who was killed in June by a mob near Basra, has become a vocal opponent of the state visit.

"My son is gone. He went to war on the 14th of February and I will have to get used to the fact that I will never see him again," he said.

"To actually to come face to face with the perpetrators of that war would give me a great deal of anger. I want nothing to do with it."

It was also revealed that the president will now meet families of British victims of September 11 inside the American Embassy rather than at the memorial garden nearby.

The change was made after concerns were raised about the president's security.