A control apparatus for an internal combustion engine can avoid an increase in harmful components in an exhaust gas even if a variable valve timing mechanism is controlled to be driven at the time of executing the correction of basic timing. The apparatus includes a variable valve timing mechanism for adjusting the opening and closing timing of an intake valve, a variable valve timing control device for driving and controlling the variable valve timing mechanism based on an operating state of an internal combustion engine, a rotation speed detection part for detecting an engine rotational speed, and an intake negative pressure detection part for detecting an intake negative pressure in an intake pipe. The variable valve timing control device includes a basic timing correction permission part, a target intake negative pressure setting part, an intake air amount adjustment part, a correction time driving control part, and a basic timing correction part.