Kate Middleton pregnant: world rejoices at news of Royal baby "It is an important day in any young couple's life when a baby is expected and I know that Catherine and William will be as nervous and excited as anyone," he said in a statement. We wish them both the very best and hope Catherine's stay in hospital is a short one. On behalf of the people of New Zealand, I congratulate them both. The baby will not only be third in line to the British throne, irrespective of its gender, but also third in line to become head of state of 16 Commonwealth nations, including Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand led a push for Commonwealth nations to scrap centuries-old laws barring firstborn daughters from inheriting the throne and the grouping agreed to the reform last year at a meeting in the Australian city of Perth. The Royal family remains popular in New Zealand and an opinion poll in New Zealand last month found 74 per cent of those surveyed favoured retaining the Queen as head of state. Just 19 per cent supported a republic and seven per cent were undecided. While Australians voted against becoming a republic in a 1999 referendum, the country's support for the monarchy is less staunch, with a poll this year finding 48 per cent favoured becoming a republic while 39 per cent objected. Germany's Bild splashes with the story, big news in a country that is a republic and which views the Mountbatten-Windsors, a family with German origins, as partly its own. England is in a state of ecstasy. The Queen and Prince William are "delighted," the Prime Minister is "delighted," the Archbishop of Canterbury is "delighted." Even US President Obama has sent congratulations," the paper writes. True to its tabloid instincts, Bild believes it has worked out that the baby was conceived while the Royal couple were in the Solomon Islands as the part of the Jubilee tour of the Commonwealth, deciding that it must be a "south seas child." The Netherland's De Telegraaf notes that it "may take some time for the child of William and Kate to land on the British throne." "Its grandfather, Prince Charles, has still not followed his mother, Queen Elizabeth," it observes. If a girl, the new princess will benefit from changes to British law on succession, which will mean that the eldest child of the British king or queen is automatically the heir, whether a man or a woman. In France, Le Figaro wrote: "The happy news comes at the perfect time to boost the morale of the country that is suffering from post-Olympic and Jubilee blues." Stéphane Bern, France's top royal watcher, said: "This future birth is sweet revenge on life and will be even bigger than Ladi Di's first pregnancy." We can already see the collective hysteria. Times are hard and the British more than ever need some lightness and to dream. (They) love being reassured about their future as a nation," he told Le Parisien newspaper. While there's still the Queen, Prince Charles who moans about not having a job at 64, Prince William, they can say to themselves that they're all set until 2060. The news made the front page of Argentina's La Nacion. Belgium's Le Soir focused on David Cameron's tweeted congratulations to the Royal couple who, he said, will "make fnatatic parents." The newspaper also informs its readers about hyperemesis gravidarum, or severe morning sickness, for which the Duchess of Cambridge is being treated. All the main Italian papers put the news of Kate Middleton's pregnancy on their front pages, with most carrying pictures of the smiling Duke and Duchess. Corriere della Sera carried a Windsor family tree showing the line of succession, explaining to readers that the baby would be third in line to the throne after Prince Charles and the Duke. The Duchess's pregnancy was the latest chapter in "an extraordinary series of fairy stories, tragedies, smiles, tears, marriages and gossip," said Corriere della Sera and would help take Britons' minds off the economic crisis. The whole country was "glued to the TV, Twitter and Facebook went crazy, and newspaper websites were besieged" said the Milan daily. The impending arrival of a Royal baby would cheer up "the hard-pressed subjects of Her Majesty." The Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza dedicated a substantial amount of its coverage of the Duchess's pregnancy to changes to the law of succession that would allow a first-born daughter to assume the throne. Citing "changing attitudes" in Britain the paper welcomes the fact "the first child will be monarch, even if she's a girl." However, there was less enthusiasm for the news in China. Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, ran images of how the royal baby might look from morphthing.com. It said: "The couple's third child will be the third heir to the throne. A British website used a computer to predict what the baby might look like. The China Daily reported: "Britain's royal family are currently riding the crest of popularity on the back of William and Kate's wedding and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this year which has witnessed nationwide celebrations."