A PRINCE OF A GUY

Wearing desert camouflage and boots, Prince Charles made a surprise morale-boosting visit to British troops in Iraq yesterday, the first member of the royal family to visit the country since the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

At a former presidential palace in the city of Basra, the prince mingled with about 200 soldiers, shaking hands, sipping tea, and praising them for their role in keeping security in southern Iraq.

"What you're doing, many of you, training Iraqis to become almost as good a bunch of soldiers as you are, is . . . of enormous importance because this part of the world doesn't have much chance unless their armed force can learn a lot from your experience . . . not only in the military, but in the hearts and minds," the prince said, according to the British news agency Press Association.