HUNDREDS of soldiers from Hampshire's own regiment were set to return home today after six months in Iraq.

Servicemen from the 1st Battalion The Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment - formerly the Hampshire Regiment - were heading back to their barracks in Tidworth, Wiltshire.

On Friday, the Daily Echo revealed that the 2nd Battalion The Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment would be deployed to the Middle East before Christmas. They will be heading to the same area where their colleagues have been based.

The 1st Battalion of the regiment - known as the Tigers - have suffered just one combat death during their time based at Al Amarah, to the north of the southern city of Basra.

Spokesman David Falcke said the regiment would return home before the soldiers moved with their families, as planned, to Paderborn in western Germany in February.

The 1 PWRR has just spent the longest period of continuous combat of any set of troops since the Korean war 50 years ago, firing more than 30,000 rounds of ammunition.

They were due to fly into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and were expected at the barracks in Wiltshire after 12.30pm. Informal celebrations will take place tonight ahead of a formal medal ceremony in December.

Meanwhile, a Hampshire MP has expressed doubts about plans to deploy soldiers from the Black Watch to help American-led troops in Iraq after a young squaddie was charged with murdering a civilian.

New Forest West MP Desmond Swayne, a Tory backbencher who served with the Territorial Army in Iraq, is angry that Trooper Kevin Lee Williams, 21, of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, had been accused of killing Hassan Sayyed in south-eastern Iraq in August 2003.

In a House of Commons debate with Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, Mr Swayne said: "Perhaps he can reassure me by telling me that he shares my anger and indignation that a soldier carrying out his mission in Iraq can be cleared of wrong-doing by his commanding officer and yet be arraigned at the Old Bailey? That is an outrage."

Mr Hoon said: "That is a matter for the courts. It is best left to the legal authorities."

Mr Sayyed, a licensed handgun owner, is alleged to have died from gunshot wounds suffered after an encounter with British soldiers investigating an altercation between two drivers.