LONDON (AFP) - Prince Harry, who the British defence ministry confirmed Friday is being withdrawn from the fighting in Afghanistan, believes his late mother princess Diana would have approved of tour of duty.

"Hopefully she would be proud," he told reporters in Afghanistan last month.

His comments were to have been withheld until his return from the volatile southern province of Helmand but news of his deployment was leaked to US website, the Drudge Report, on Thursday, forcing his "immediate" return, the defence ministry said .

"She would be looking down having a giggle about the stupid things that I've been doing, like going left when I should have gone right, finding myself in an awkward position earlier today."

The 23-year-old royal, who was just 12 when his mother died in a Paris car crash in August 1997, said he had received a letter from his elder brother Prince William saying his mother would have been proud.

But he admitted he does not spend too much time thinking about it amid attacks by what he and colleagues call "Terry Taliban."

"You know, at the end of the day I'm an officer and you're supposed to be able to look after everybody and that's the way it is -- you come last," he said.

"So I haven't really had a chance to sit down and think about it much."

Harry, who had been set to be posted to Iraq last year before an about-turn by Britain's top military brass over security fears, also admitted that he could be a "top target" for extremists now he has fought in Afghanistan.

The royal, one of Britain's 7,700-strong force in southern Afghanistan also said that once news of his deployment was made public, "every single person that supports them will be trying to slot me."

Asked about the British public's reaction, he said he hoped they approve by simply saying "so what?"

"I wouldn't expect the British public to make much of it," he said.

"I think they would just turn round and go, 'Yep, good on him, good on the people who got him out there, he's a soldier, so what?', that sort of thing.

"'So what if he goes out there, my husband went out there, he died, so what if he goes out there,' would be the general opinion, hopefully so."

Harry added that he thought certain commentators, whom he did not name, who called him a "coward" for not going to Iraq, would now have to "eat their words."

On not being sent to Iraq, Harry said he had initially thought of quitting -- and bemoaned his royal status -- but now said he does not mind as he "spoke to the guys who got back from Iraq and it wasn't that great anyway."

But the only thing that held him back was the prospect of a tour in Afghanistan that was "dangled as a carrot", he added.

Elsewhere, Harry talked of his daily life as a serving soldier, like spending Christmas Day in a bullet-marked former Taliban madrassa with Gurkha colleagues as his family tucked in to turkey at their British country retreat.

And he clearly relishes the camaraderie of soldiering -- and conditions a world away from the trappings of privilege at home, relishing the prospect of being anonymous and being treated as "just one of the lads".

"It's bizarre," he said. "I'm out here now, haven't really had a shower for four days, haven't washed my clothes for a week and everything seems completely normal."

"I think this is about as normal as I'm ever going to get."

Source: AFP