Queen's Christmas message

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Queen Elizabeth will pay tribute to the British armed forces in her annual Christmas Day message, after the bloodiest year for British and American troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion.

The queen, who is the titular head of the military, spoke earlier this year of the nation's "deep and enduring gratitude" to the armed forces.

With British troops deployed in more than 80 countries, including around 10,000 in Afghanistan, she will use her traditional message to thank them for their service, according to brief details released by royal officials on Thursday.

The number of British troops killed in Afghanistan this year reached 100 in early December. The Defence Ministry said the two latest soldiers to die, earlier this week, may have been shot by mistake by their comrades.

After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Queen broke with tradition by filming her message in the cavalry barracks in Windsor, rather than inside Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace or her Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

Unlike the Queen's Speech at the annual opening of parliament, the monarch expresses her own views rather than those of the government in her Christmas message.

"It is an opportunity to speak directly to the public, to react to their concerns and to thank and reassure them," the royal website says.

The Queen has made a Christmas broadcast in every year but one since her coronation.

There was no message in 1969 because of the media exposure already generated by the investiture of her eldest son and heir, Charles, as Prince of Wales and a TV documentary about the royal family.

The Queen's 57th message, pre-recorded in Buckingham Palace, will be shown here in New Zealand at 6.50pm on Friday on TV1 and on YouTube, www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalChannel.

- Reuters