LONDON, Sept 11, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - King Charles III will make a slimmed-down nine-day tour of Australia and Samoa in October, Buckingham Palace said Tuesday, in his first trip as monarch to a country where he is also head of state.

Next month's trip will be 75-year-old Charles's first royal tour since his cancer diagnosis was announced in February, and will see him and his wife Queen Camilla, 77, visit Sydney and Canberra.

He will then attend a Commonwealth summit in Samoa.

Charles made a day-long foreign trip in June -- attending D-Day commemorations in France -- and has been steadily increasing his engagements as his treatment progresses.

The Pacific trip -- which begins on October 18 -- will spotlight climate change, bushfires and groundbreaking skin cancer research, as well as sustainability and biodiversity.

Buckingham Palace said the engagements "will focus on themes designed to celebrate the best of Australia and Samoa, as well as reflecting aspects of the king and queen's work".

Charles, who became king on the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022, is Australia's head of state.

Samoa is part of the 56-nation Commonwealth, 14 of whose members also have Charles as head of state but where republican movements have grown in recent years calling for a severing of historical ties with the British monarchy.

The Pacific island state is hosting the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) -- Charles' first as king -- in late October.

The long-haul trip, which follows state visits last year by Charles and Camilla to Germany, France and Kenya, was first announced in July but without fixed dates or a detailed schedule.

Earlier plans to include a visit to New Zealand were scrapped in light of the king's cancer diagnosis, which led him to suspend public engagements between February and May.

- 'Opportunity' -

"We are delighted that His Majesty is recovering well and has made visiting Australia once again a priority," its Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said as the new details were released.

He called it "an opportunity to showcase the best of Australia".

Charles and Camilla will kick off their public engagements during the October 18-23 Australian leg of the tour in Canberra, where Albanese will welcome them to Parliament House.

While in the capital they will lay a wreath at the Australian War Memorial and visit the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander memorial, "For our Country".

They are also set to discuss climate change impacts with staff at the Australian National Botanic Gardens and see how the country's national science agency researchers deal with the aftermath of bushfires.

In Sydney, the royal couple will conduct a fleet review of the Royal Australian Navy, in the city's world-famous harbour.

Charles is also to meet acclaimed medical researchers Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer.

The pair are credited with saving thousands of lives by developing a way to unleash the body's immune system on advanced melanomas, a form of skin cancer previously considered fatal.

Charles made many visits to Australia while prince, but it will be his first since he succeeded his mother.

It will also be the first visit to the country by a reigning monarch since her tour in 2011.