Prime Minister Tony Blair is likely to face questions on the future of Britain's commitment in Iraq and Afghanistan when he faces the press.
The meeting takes place just a week after US President George Bush announced plans to send 21,500 more troops to the Gulf.
Iraq is expected to feature heavily in the first of Mr Blair's regular monthly press conferences of the year in which he is planning to quit as Prime Minister.
The grilling comes just a day after the execution of two of Saddam Hussein's closest henchmen, which provoked global unease as it emerged that the former dictator's half-brother and intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim was decapitated during the hanging.
There were also unconfirmed reports that Britain was being asked to provide more troops for Afghanistan, a day after the UK's death toll in the country rose to 46.
Questions are also expected about the precise timing of Mr Blair's departure from 10 Downing Street, which he has said will come before the TUC's annual congress in September.
The opening of Mr Blair's final year as Labour leader has seen a series of unwelcome controversies, over which he is also likely to be challenged. They include:
:: In the Home Office, an investigation is under way into why thousands of Britons convicted abroad were not entered on the police national computer;
:: Former education secretary Ruth Kelly has come under fire for deciding to send her son to a private school because of his special educational needs;
:: Labour Party chairman Hazel Blears has led a string of ministers who have joined local protests against hospital ward closures which, critics say, are a direct result of the Government's health policies.
