Dubai is buying the QE2 for $100m (�50.5m) for use as a floating hotel

The Queen launched the QE2 on the River Clyde in 1967 and since then she has carried 2.5 million passengers.

The 70,000-tonne ship is setting off from Southampton on the eight-day tour and will call at Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool.

The ship will be one of the first to use Liverpool's new terminal, to be opened by the Duke of Kent on Friday.

The ship will be berthed from 2009 at a pier at the Palm Jumeirah development in Dubai and turned into a floating hotel off the Gulf emirate's man-made islands.

The famous liner is 963ft long, 105ft wide and can carry as many as 1,778 passengers and more than 1,000 crew.