Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K.'s Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, arrive in the U.S. today on their first joint official overseas trip since they married in April.

Charles, heir to the British throne, and Camilla will fly to New York and head straight for Ground Zero, a spokeswoman for his London office, Clarence House, said in a phone interview. From there, they'll visit the British Memorial Garden, less than a mile away, to unveil a stone marker honoring Britons who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The couple will travel to Washington tomorrow for a dinner at the White House hosted by President George W. Bush. They're expected to meet people affected by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on Nov. 4. The week-long tour will also include trips to San Francisco and Marin County in California.

Charles and Camilla's visit is in response to a request from the British government to promote U.K. interests, the prince's spokeswoman said. The royal couple will attend 22 events during the tour.

A total of 81 percent of Americans are not ``remotely interested'' in the royal visit, according to a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll cited yesterday by the newspaper. The survey showed fewer than one in five wants to meet them, and 30 percent were more interested in princes William and Harry, Charles's children with his late wife, Diana, Princess of Wales. The paper didn't give details of the poll.

Charles, 56, married Camilla, 58, on April 9, the first time a British heir has married a divorcee since the 12th century. Princess Diana was popular in the U.S. and danced with actor John Travolta at a White House gala 20 years ago. She died after being injured in a car crash in Paris in 1997.

The prince and duchess will attend a reception later today at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Among the 300 guests expected to nibble on organic canapes are ``Sex and the City'' stars Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker as well as Robert De Niro, Jerry Seinfeld, Diane Sawyer and Donald Trump, according to the New York Post.

The British Memorial Garden, in Lower Manhattan's Hanover Square, was designed by British landscape architects Julian and Isabel Bannerman, who are known for their work on Prince Charles's own garden at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire.

Sixty-eight Britons were among about 3,000 victims of the Sept. 11 attacks that targeted New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington.

``We are delighted and excited by their royal highnesses' upcoming visit to our garden-in-progress,'' Camilla Hellman, president of the garden's trust, said on the group's Web site.

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