John Key to meet the Queen

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Prime Minister John Key will be the first leader to have a meeting with Queen Elizabeth at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) this week.

Mr Key and his delegation fly to Port of Spain, the Capital of Trinidad and Tobago, on Wednesday to attend the biennial Chogm.

"I think I am the first leader seeing the Queen, and I am doing the toast for the Queen as well," Mr Key said on TVNZ's Breakfast programme this morning.

"I must be teacher's pet. I think it was something to do with bringing back the knighthoods."

Titular honours were abolished by the Labour-led government in 1999, but Mr Key reinstated them.

A spokeswoman for Mr Key said he was invited to make the toast at the Friday dinner hosted by the Queen - it is an honour given to the most recently-elected country leader.

Mr Key met the Queen on a visit to Britain a year ago.