Britain's Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday sent a special Christmas message to British Armed Forces, praising the courage and loyalty of the country's troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Our country asks a lot of you and your families," said the Queen, head of Britain's Armed Forces, in the prerecorded Christmas Eve radio broadcast to the Armed Forces serving at home and abroad.

"Your courage and loyalty are not lightly taken. It is a pledge which calls for sacrifice and devotion to duty." she said.

"In Iraq and Afghanistan you continue to make an enormous contribution in helping to rebuild those countries and in other operational theatres you undertake essential duties with a professionalism which is so highly regarded the world over," she said.

She said her "thoughts and prayers" were with the families of soldiers killed in recent months.

It is the second time in recent years that the Queen has recorded a separate message for the troops in addition to her annual 25 December broadcast to the country.

In a year that has seen the British military death toll in Iraq rise to 126 and 42 in Afghanistan, the queen said she and other members of the royal family had been "hugely impressed" by the morale of troops in testing conditions.

Currently, Britain has some 7,000 troops in southern Iraq, most in the Basra area, and about 4,500 soldiers in the southern Afghan province of Helmand.

Source: Xinhua