Harry back in Britain after Afghan tour (AFP)

RAF BRIZE NORTON (AFP) - Prince Harry returned to Britain from Afghanistan Saturday after a 10-week tour fighting the Taliban, and was reunited with his father Prince Charles and elder brother William.

An unmarked military plane carrying the 23-year-old touched down at Royal Air Force Base Brize Norton near Oxford after he was pulled out of war-torn Afghanistan on security grounds.

Harry, a junior officer in the Household Cavalry, had been in the volatile southern province of Helmand since mid-December but foreign media on Thursday broke a news blackout deal arranged with Britains defence ministry.

Charles, who said he struggled to keep his sons mission under wraps, told reporters he was happy to see his son back safe and sound as he and Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to his and other British troops efforts.

"Its an incredible relief to see him back in one piece," he said. "It is obviously marvellous to see him back and Im enormously proud of what hes done."

Brown added: "We are very grateful to him for all the work he has done in Afghanistan -- very grateful to all the soldiers in Afghanistan."

Still wearing camouflage fatigues and carrying his kit and body armour, Harry, who is third in line to the throne, filed down the steps of the RAF blue-coloured Tristar jet behind some 170 other returning British soldiers.

There was no official welcome on the tarmac and he later left with William, 25, in a chauffeur-driven car, reportedly for their fathers nearby country residence, after completing administrative formalities in the terminal.

Harry is the first British royal to see frontline action since his uncle, Prince Andrew, flew as a naval helicopter pilot during the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina.

He had been due to go to Iraq last year, but military top brass performed an about-turn amid concern about his security and that of his fellow soldiers.

That left him on the verge of quitting the army until he was offered the chance to serve as part of Britains 7,800-strong contingent in the NATO coalition in Afghanistan as a battlefield air controller.

Television pictures aired since US website Drudge Report broke the embargo Thursday have shown him calling in air strikes on Taliban positions and firing at insurgents with a machine gun.

His work has won wide praise from his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, political and military leaders, and also claims that he is frustrated at having to leave early but is itching to return to frontline duties.

The Sun tabloid also claimed army officer William -- who recently began training as a Royal Air Force pilot -- will be commissioned into the Royal Navy and serve on a frigate or destroyer in a world troublespot later this year.

The defence ministry refused to comment.

Until Friday, Harry was operating with a light tank squadron in the desert outside the former Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala, that British and Afghan troops seized last December.

Harry, a second lieutenant in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry, also commanded a seven-strong Spartan vehicle team supporting a major US and Afghan army push last week to clear a route through to the Kajaki Dam.

The prince -- who has gained a reputation for hard-partying and attracting trouble at home -- told reporters who visited him in Afghanistan that he enjoyed being away from the glare of media publicity.

But he acknowledged his tour could make him a "top target" for extremists and said he had been nicknamed "bullet magnet".

A number of newspapers quoted foreign-based Islamists as agreeing that Harrys role could incense radicals, but mainstream Muslim opinion in Britain has been largely supportive.