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(2010-03-17 13:20:34)
Prince Charles and his wife Camilla met on Wednesday with Polish soldiers who are due to be sent to Afghanistan, as they wound up a three-day visit to the central European nation.
The prince and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, reviewed troops at the base of Poland's 1st Armoured Brigade, in Wesola near the Polish capital Warsaw.
Charles chatted with a sniper from an elite unit who, fittingly for the snowy weather, was dressed in a white winter camouflage uniform.
Flanked by senior Polish officers, the couple plugged their ears with their fingers amid the gunfire as unit showed off its battle skills.
Afterwards, they headed to a military club house where they chatted with troops who are poised to join Poland's contingent in Afghanistan.
Poland is one of the major European players in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, with 2,200 troops there, and is set to boost the number by 400 next month.
The royal couple also met the troops' family members, and were treated to a traditional dance by a group of young girls. A shy three-year-old boy gave the duchess a bunch of flowers.
They also offered words of comfort ahead of the families' looming separation, which strikes a chord with them.
Prince Harry, 25, youngest son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and the late princess Diana, is an officer in the British army.
He was secretly deployed in Afghanistan for 10 weeks in 2008, but was forced to return home after his security was compromised when a carefully arranged media blackout was broken.
Charles and Camilla arrived in Poland on Monday at the start of a nine-day tour of central Europe which will also take in Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Copyright 2010 AFP European Edition
