British soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans will receive cash bonuses to pay off their tax bill, Defense Secretary Dec Browne announced on Tuesday.

He told the House of Commons that the soldiers were to receive a tax free operational bonus of 2,240 pounds, instead of removing tax bills, that would be backdated to April this year.

It will be distributed regardless of rank. This will equate to around 90 pounds a week over six months.

Browne described the "difficult, dangerous and exhausting" job that British soldiers are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It has already emerged that British soldiers wounded while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq will receive an extra allowance of 10 pounds a day while they are in overseas hospitals.

Earlier, Chancellor Gordon Brown said the annual 68 million pound cost of the bonus would be met by the Treasury Ministry, not by the Defense Ministry.

And Conservative Party leader David Cameron said "I went to see our troops in July (in Iraq), I got a very clear message from them about the anger at paying income tax."

"I raised these when I got back to the UK, I raised then consistently and I am glad the government has listened," he said.

Prime Minister Tony Blair told the BBC that the payment was in recognition of the fact that British troops were going through a completely different experience to soldiers on the battlefield years ago.

"It is something that is obviously important because of the work that the troops are doing," he said.

Source: Xinhua