Rock star Rod Stewart and girlfriend model Penny Lancaster, after the announcement that they are to marry, in central London Saturday March 12. 2005. Penny is wearing her princess cut diamond engagement ring. The couple are expected to marry in a church service somewhere in Europe later in 2005. (AP Photo/Martin Cleaver)

Rod Stewart has proposed to his longtime girlfriend at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Stewart's record company said Saturday.

Record label BMG said Stewart, 60, went down on one knee and proposed to 33-year-old Penny Lancaster at the French landmark on Wednesday. She accepted.

"I left it this long because I wanted to get it right this time," Stewart said in a statement. "I've never been happier and more in love than I am today."

BMG said the couple, who have dated for more than five years, plan to marry later this year.

Lancaster's agent, Nicholas Young, said the couple would make wedding plans once Stewart's divorce from model Rachel Hunter is finalized. "Rod's preference is to get married in Scotland," Young said.

The raspy-voiced rock star was previously married to Alana Stewart.

                                                                              (AP)

raspy-voiced: 声音粗糙刺耳的