The day is a permanent extension of Veterans' Awareness Week

Visits to historic sites, memorials and war graves around the world will also be financed, the Big Lottery Fund said.

Chancellor Gordon Brown, who announced plans for the event, will meet veterans at the Imperial War Museum later.

On Tuesday, events across the UK will include a No 10 reception for veterans' associations representatives.

History teaches us about our past so we can learn lessons for the present and the future Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell will also attend the Imperial War Museum's celebration of its Veterans Reunited campaign to establish a national archive of ex-servicemen and women's memories on Thursday England.

She said it would "ensure the experience of the thousands of soldiers who risked their lives for our freedom during the Second World War will live on in the respect and understanding of their courage by young people today and in the future".

"History teaches us about our past so we can learn lessons for the present and the future."

Mr Brown said: "There is nothing we can ever do that will adequately thank those men and women who have served so bravely in our armed forces.

What we must do is remember their heroism, their courage and their sacrifice Gordon Brown

"But what we must do is remember their heroism, their courage and their sacrifice.

"It is vital that today's young people talk to our veterans, listen to their memories and learn the lessons from our history, and I hope every young person will have that opportunity."

The Veterans Agency said 27 June was chosen for National Veterans' Day as it came the day after the anniversary of the first investiture of the Victoria Cross, which happened in Hyde Park, London, in 1857.

An annual event, the commemorative day will be a permanent extension of Veterans' Awareness Week which was held for the first time last year, a spokesman said.

On Tuesday, the prime minister, Defence Secretary Des Browne, Veterans Minister Tom Watson and Mr Brown will meet veterans from almost 40 groups and from "as broad a range of experience, service and age as possible", Tony Blair has said.

Elsewhere, Armed Forces minister Adam Ingram will attend a parade in Dundee.

And former soldiers, air crews and sailors will be presented with medals at ceremonies across the UK.

US model

Other events include a royal visit to the Royal Hospital in London, a service at Westminster Abbey, a parade in Staffordshire and the launch of archives in schools.

National Veterans' Day follows the US model of commemorative annual events.

Veterans in the US have had an official holiday since 1954, when Armistice Day on 11 November was changed to Veterans' Day by an Act of Congress.

Armistice Day marks the end of fighting between the Allied forces and Germany in World War I.