Royal Couple Greeted Warmly

Prince Charles, Camilla Start U.S. Trip With Tribute To 9/11 Victims

(CBS/AP) 
The duchess seemed at ease, smiling broadly as she accepted a bouquet of flowers from a 5-year-old girl. Camilla, who has been trying to project a more glamorous image, wore a dark rose Italian wool crepe jacket and dress with velvet chiffon trim by designer Roy Allen.

Later, at the museum reception, the 58-year-old duchess had the chance to showcase another of the 40 outfits she brought for the trip, which will also include meetings with hurricane victims in New Orleans, homeless people in San Francisco and organic farmers in Marin County, California.

Camilla, wearing a navy blue velvet cocktail dress with a cream chiffon collar by British designer Anthony Price, and Charles mingled with the invited British and American celebrities.

Guests attending the reception included Yoko Ono, Sting, TV newswomen Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters, real estate tycoon Donald Trump, former tennis star John McEnroe, actors Matthew Modine and Joan Collins, and New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Camilla did not join Charles in the afternoon when he headed to the United Nations, where he was greeted by Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The 56-year-old prince recalled that the last time they met was in 1997, soon after Annan became the U.N. chief, and Charles joked "how like the secretary-general we all become grayer and grayer as time goes by."

On a more serious note, he appealed to about 200 businessmen to take on young people and serve as mentors to help them find employment, noting that in the Middle East alone, 100 million jobs will have to be created in the next 20 years just for new entrants to the job market.

"In my view, of the great long-term challenges today, apart from the most urgent need to tackle climate change, is creating meaningful employment for young people," Charles said.

The U.S. tour is also part of a careful palace plan to win acceptance for the duchess, long reviled in the British press — and among Diana-philes — as the woman who broke up the royal romance. "There were three of us in that marriage," Diana told a television reporter in 1995.

Charles and Diana divorced in 1996; Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris the following year.

British media had predicted scant interest from Americans in the first joint trip to the United States by Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, since they tied the knot in April. CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips spoke with friends and admirers from back home have been watching the trip, hoping the couple can win America over.

Papers in London took note of a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, which found 59 percent of Americans surveyed saying they were "not at all interested" in the visit, 22 percent were "not too interested," 13 percent were "somewhat interested" and 6 percent were "very interested."

Some bystanders in New York felt differently.

"I've been following this man since I was in grade school in Minnesota. I wrote papers about him," Thomas Rex Campbell, a writer who grew up in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, said of Prince Charles. "I very much admire him for his breadth of vision on the world. He's interested in everything from farming to classical architecture. He's the best-educated Prince of Wales ever."

On Wednesday, the royal couple were to travel to Washington, where they will have an intimate lunch and a lavish dinner with President Bush and his wife, Laura, at the White House.

Some press reports have speculated the prince will use his meeting with Mr. Bush to raise the issue of climate change, which he recently called "terrifying."

Asked if the president wanted to discuss climate change, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Mr. Bush "looks forward to the visit. He's glad to talk about whatever issues Prince Charles may want to bring up."