Politics and Society | Iceland Monitor | Wed 28 Oct 2015 | 20.54 GMT | Modified 13 Apr 2016 9.41

David Cameron arrives in Iceland

Cameron and Gunnlaugsson in front of the parliament building in Reykjavik, Alþingi. Mbl.is/ Árni Sæberg

British PM David Cameron has arrived in Iceland and met Icelandic PM Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson at Parliament in the late afternoon. Security has been stepped up for Cameron's visit and over twenty police officers and six police vehicles guarded the house of Parliament, Alþingi.

Sources of mbl.is mantain that Cameron will be meeting foreign press at Iðnó in the city centre. We previously reported that he will be taking the opportunity on his Iceland visit to announce that he hopes Britain will remain in the EU.

According to an mbl.is reporter on site a great number of special armed force police officers surrounded the parliament building in the city centre as is common for state visits by nation leaders.

Following the meeting this afternoon, Gunnlaugsson said to mbl.is that the meeting had gone well. "It was a great meeting and unusually long and detailed for such a meeting," he added. He told mbl.is that among the topics of discussion were security matters, the fight against the Islamic State and the situation in Syria. They also discussed the history of political relations between Iceland and Britain.

Gunnlaugsson also made a point of talking about Iceland's disappointment in Britain using terrorist laws in 2008 by the government led by Gordon Brown. Asked whether they had discussed the EU Gunnlaugsson replied, "Yes, we discussed that a lot and Cameron's interest in trying to make changes."

On the subject of refugees, Gunnlaugsson said that they had discussed the increasing number of refugees coming to Europe. "Britain has followed the same direction as Iceland in the matter by wanting to improve the situation in refugee camps close to Syria and to try to take in refugees directly from Syria instead of sending the message out that people will not receive asylum unless they undertake a dangerous journey with smugglers."

This is the first time in the history if the Icelandic republic, founded in 1944, that a British Prime Minister makes an official visit to the country. Winston Churchill visited Iceland in 1941 to meet with the Icelandic government. "Cameron is a great fan of Churchill's and he enjoyed discussing that visit. He won't be able to visit all the same places that Churchill visited but he won't have time to do that this time. I told him he was welcome back and then we would go to visit Geysir. "

Tomorrow, both Prime Ministers as well as the PM's of all the Nordic and Baltic countries will be discussing creative industries at the Northern Future Forum in Reykjavik.