Nicolas Sarkozy visits BBC Radio studio

French president Nicolas Sarkozy today visited a BBC Radio studio in London to mark the 70th anniversary of the wartime appeal by general Charles de Gaulle.

On June 18 1940, De Gaulle used the studio at BBC Broadcasting House to issue a rallying call to his fellow countrymen to resist the Nazi occupation.

Just a day before the broadcast, marshal Philippe Petain's government in France had announced its surrender to the Germans.

The broadcast, which was followed by many more appeals by the general right up to the end of World War II in 1945, was widely viewed as galvanising French resistance in the war.

During his visit today, Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni toured the B2 radio studio at BBC Broadcasting House from where De Gaulle made his historic broadcasts.

The president also unveiled a plaque outside Broadcasting House commemorating De Gaulle's actions and their significance in the war.

The party was then shown around the general's wartime headquarters in Carlton Gardens, before laying a wreath at De Gaulle's statue outside.

Later in the day, the French president will meet Prince Charles, before having lunch with Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street.