To the uplifting strains of "La Marseillaise," British Queen Elizabeth II marched down the famed Champs-Elysees in Paris yesterday to kick off a pomp-filled state visit celebrating a century of friendship between France and Britain.

　　The british monarch's three-day state visit coincides with the centennial of the Entente Cordiale, an agreement signed in London on April 8, 1904, that resolved colonial disputes and helped forge an Anglo-French alliance that has stood the test of time.

　　The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, began their state visit on the Eurostar train under the English Channel, a strong symbol of French-British cooperation. The royal couple unveiled a commemorative plaque and then boarded a train car that the queen christened "the Entente Cordiale."

　　The royal couple arrived in Paris several hours later. Wearing a white suit and matching small-brimmed hat, the queen exited a dark-colored Bentley, then walked down the Champs-Elysees to inspect troops with President Jacques Chirac and his wife, Bernadette. A military band played the British and French national anthems, "God Save the Queen" and the "La Marseillaise."

　　The royal couple was to take part in a military ceremony on the Champs-Elysees later, to be followed by dinner with Chirac at the presidential Elysees Palace.

　　Queen elizabeth has made three other state visits to France and many other private or official trips. After her marriage in 1947, she paid a formal visit to France and Greece with Prince Philip. She became queen in 1953.

　　Paris was decked out with Union Jacks and French tricolor flags hanging side-by-side on lampposts. On the rue Montorgueil, a pedestrian market street where the queen is to stroll today, a chocolatier displayed a huge Easter egg with her likeness on it.

　　Queen elizabeth, a devoted equestrian, will take in a show by an elite dressage team today. Also on the program: a stop at a Louvre Museum gallery to be devoted to British art, a dinner with the theme of cancer prevention, and a visit the headquarters of European plane-building powerhouse Airbus in southern France.

　　The visit will attempt to bolster ties strained over the Iraq war. British Prime Minister Tony Blair was US President George W. Bush's strongest backer for war plans, while Chirac was among Bush's most outspoken critics.

　　(The Associated Press)