William met relatives of Trooper Robert Pearson, 22, at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire on Monday as he returned from a secret flying visit to Afghanistan.

The future king spent three hours at Kandahar Airfield, the main Nato base in southern Afghanistan, meeting service personnel earlier in the day.

He was said to be "honoured" to be part of the air crew repatriating the trooper's body as he returned from his own first trip to the country where 8,800 British servicemen are serving in the war against the Taliban.

But Royal watchers and some troops suggested the visit was a public relations exercise to "cover up" recent controversy over the Prince being allowed to fly military helicopters to a stag party and his girlfriend's family home.

Clarence House insisted the possibility of William's flight into an operational theatre was under consideration last year and detailed planning began at the start of April.

The official purpose of the trip was for him to familiarise himself with RAF operations in a battle situation. The sprawling base at Kandahar is outside troubled Helmand Province, where British forces are involved in direct combat with the Taliban, and where his brother Prince Harry served earlier this year.

William took the controls of a C-17 Globemaster for part of the flight which left RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Sunday, arriving in Afghanistan the next day. He later flew back via Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the main staging post for British troops going to Iraq.

Trooper Pearson, 22, from Grimsby, Lincolnshire, of the Queen's Royal Lancers, was killed by a mine in Helmand Province on April 21. He was driving an armoured vehicle protecting a resupply convoy returning from the town of Gereshk when the blast happened.

The 94th British serviceman to die in Afghanistan since the launch of the US-led war against the Taliban in 2001, he left behind his father Paul, stepmother Gillian, and three sisters Terrie, Alex and Alivia.