"Following a detailed assessment of the risks by the operational chain of command, the decision has been taken ... to withdraw Prince Harry from Afghanistan immediately," the Ministry of Defense said after news of his deployment leaded out.

Speaking to reporters before he left for the war-torn country in an interview that was supposed to be held back until his safe return, the 23-year-old prince said he hoped that he would be treated as "just a normal officer."

The prince also admitted in an interview released Thursday that he sometimes wished he was not a privileged, well-known royal.

And asked whether, following an about-turn by Britain's top military brass that meant he would not be posted to Iraq last year, he ever wished he was not a prince, Harry replied: "I wish that quite a lot actually."

Prince Harry was posted in mid-December to the restive Helmand province of southern Afghanistan under a cloak of secrecy following an unusual agreement reached between the media and the army.

But the arrangement collapsed after news was leaked on the U.S. Web site, the Drudge Report, on Thursday.

The ministry said the decision to withdraw the prince, who is third in line to the throne, was taken primarily because "the worldwide media coverage of Prince Harry in Afghanistan could impact on the security of those who are deployed there, as well as the risks to him as an individual soldier."

It slammed as "regrettable" the decision "by elements of the foreign media to report Prince Harry's presence in Afghanistan without any consultation with the Ministry of Defence."

"However, this was a circumstance that we have always been aware of and one for which we have had contingency plans in place."

The ministry urged the media to maintain a news blackout until the prince returned to Britain.

Prince Harry's deployment made him the first British royal to be sent into combat in more than a quarter of a century. His unit of the Household Cavalry was fighting Taliban extremists in Helmand, where the majority of the 7,700 British troops in Afghanistan are stationed.

Under the blackout deal, a group of British journalists visited him in Afghanistan on condition that details would only be made public once he had left.

The blackout was agreed after the prince's planned tour of duty in Iraq last year was shelved because of the security risk sparked by publicity.

Those pre-prepared interviews were released Thursday after it was revealed he was in Afghanistan, along with video of him firing a machine gun, using a field telephone and apparently trying to restart a stalled motorcycle.

In one interview, the prince said he joked with colleagues about his nickname – "Bullet Magnet" – and thought that his late mother, Princess Diana, would have been proud of his deployment.

Prince Harry acknowledged his tour could make him a "top target" for extremists, adding that "every single person that supports them will be trying to slot me."

He said he hoped public reaction to his deployment would be positive and rounded on some commentators who branded him a coward after the army blocked his deployment to Iraq, saying he hoped "they'll eat their words."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown described him as an "exemplary soldier [who] is serving with dedication in the finest tradition of our armed forces."

The British Army's most senior officer, Chief of the General Staff Sir Richard Dannatt, criticized the breaking of the news blackout but said the last two months had shown it was "perfectly possible" for Prince Harry to serve in the same fashion as other army officers of his rank and experience.

The prince, who had considered quitting the armed forces after the Iraq decision, retrained as a battlefield air controller, known as a JTAC (Joint Terminal Attack Controller), to go to Afghanistan.

He flew out on Dec. 14 and spent several weeks in Garmsir in Helmand province, operating just 500 yards from frontline Taliban positions.

He is no longer in Garmsir, although the details cannot be reported for security reasons.