Washington ? President Bush, a self-confessed cowboy boots and blue jeans kind of guy, said he’s more than prepared to dine with Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family this week at Buckingham Palace.

“Got my tails all set and ready to go,” the president told a roundtable of British journalists Friday in Washington. “Had to rent them, but just don’t tell anybody.”

Uncharacteristically donning stiffly pressed formal wear might be the most comfortable part of Bush’s three-day state visit to the United Kingdom, which begins Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of protesters from across Europe are expected to hit the London streets to noisily protest Bush and the Iraq war.

Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street officials maintain that the visit is to acknowledge the “special relationship” between the United States and its former colonial master.

But in an apparent nod to the public’s adverse reaction to Bush, some of the usual pomp of a state visit has been scaled back. Bush will not get the traditional horse-drawn carriage ride with the Queen down the Mall. And he will not deliver a speech to Parliament.

Some British newspapers have reported that the Parliament omission was to avoid protests from lawmakers, like the heckling Bush encountered when addressed Australia’s legislature last month.

U.S. officials said the omissions had nothing to do with Bush’s popularity, or lack thereof.

One administration official said Bush wasn’t doing the carriage ride because American presidents hadn’t publicly ridden in an open vehicle since President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

The official added that a state visit did not guarantee a speech before parliament.