Bratislava - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was to arrive in Slovakia Thursday for her first visit to the ex-communist country that went independent 15 years ago and became an economic success story.

The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, were coming off a trip to Slovenia, a smaller country to the south that once was part of Yugoslavia.

In Slovakia, the queen was to meet Thursday with President Ivan Gasparovic, Prime Minister Robert Fico and Sir Nicholas Winton, 99, a Briton who saved hundreds of mostly Czechoslovak Jewish children from Nazi concentration camps on the eve of World War II.

The royal couple's schedule also included a tour of the capital, Bratislava, and of the High Tatra mountains. She was to open an ice- hockey friendly between Slovak and British clubs on Friday.

Excitement spilled from the pages of the Slovak newspapers in the days before the royal stay, scheduled to end Friday.

"The visit of the British Queen Elizabeth II is one of the greatest diplomatic events in Slovakia's contemporary history," the Sme daily newspaper wrote.

"Only a trip by George Bush, Vladimir Putin or Pope John Paul II could match it," the paper said.

Slovakia and the Czech Republic, once united as Czechoslovakia, split ways peacefully in 1993 after communism fell.

Slovakia joined NATO and the European Union in 2004. In a sign of its economic success, the country of 5.4 million is due to switch to the euro on January 1. (dpa)