President Michael D Higgins will visit San Francisco to meet representatives of the arts and cultural community today.

Five days into an eight day visit to the US the President will also make a trip to the University of California to deliver a keynote address on global hunger and poverty.

On Wednesday the President Higgins will plant a tree in Berkeley in memory of the six Irish students who died there in June.

Six students were killed and seven others were injured after the balcony snapped off an apartment building during a June 16 birthday party.

Five of the dead were Irish students working in the San Francisco Bay Area for the summer, and the sixth was an Irish-American from California.

President Higgins will also visit the first responders, volunteers and everyone who helped following the tragic balcony collapse.