William and Kate line up New Zealand and Australia trip

The 2011 visit to Canada was the first official overseas visit for the duke and duchess

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are to visit New Zealand and Australia next April, Kensington Palace has said.

It is thought likely their baby son, Prince George, will also accompany them but a final decision will be made nearer the time.

If he attends, Prince George will be eight months old and on his first official overseas tour.

Prince William has made a number of official trips to Australia and New Zealand in the past.

While the duchess is yet to pay an official visit to either country, she and her husband were in the media spotlight when they flew to Brisbane airport to catch a flight home at the end of their South Pacific tour in September 2012.

Their visit in April will echo the Prince and Princess of Wales's visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1983 when the couple took William, then aged nine months old, with them.

Kensington Palace confirmed the visit but released no further details about the itinerary or how long it would last.

It said in a statement: "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will visit New Zealand and Australia in April 2014.

"Their royal highnesses have been invited to visit by the New Zealand and Australian governments. Further details on the exact dates and itinerary will be issued in due course."

Prince William's last official trip to New Zealand and Australia took place in March 2011, when he was in Christchurch, shortly after it suffered an earthquake, and in Queensland and Victoria, which had been hit by floods.

Prince George will be eight months old if he accompanies his parents on the visit

In January 2010 he represented the Queen at the opening of the Supreme Court building in the New Zealand capital Wellington and also visited Auckland, and during the same trip travelled to Melbourne and Sydney.

The duke and duchess made their first overseas visit together shortly after their marriage when they were in Canada and the US in July 2011.

Their only other trip abroad was the nine-day visit in September 2012, which saw them in South East Asia and the South Pacific as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.