French President Francois Hollande will visit Britain on Friday for talks with Prime Minister David Cameron on foreign policy and shared energy and defence projects, officials said.

The half-day Anglo-French summit will include a media conference, at which Hollande will likely face awkward questions about his love life from Britain's notoriously prurient press.

The talks are taking place at the Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Brize Norton, west of London, reflecting their "strong defence element", a spokeswoman for Cameron's Downing Street office said.

The leaders will be accompanied by their foreign and defence ministers and are expected to mark the progress made since a landmark 2010 defence and security agreement struck by Cameron and Hollande's predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Anglo-French summits generally take place every year although the last was held in February 2012, shortly before Hollande was elected president.

Friday's talks will also likely cover energy cooperation, after Britain signed a 16-billion pounds ($26-billion, 18.9-billion-euro) deal in October with French giant EDF to build a new nuclear plant.

Away from matters of state, Hollande is likely to face a barrage of questions from British journalists over his announcement on Saturday that he is splitting from his partner, Valerie Trierweiler, following reports he was having an affair with actress Julie Gayet.