LONDON, ENGLAND - A British soldier was shot and killed Wednesday in Afghanistan, taking the number of British deaths there this year alone to 98, the Ministry of Defence said.

The soldier, from the Royal Military Police, was killed during operations in the Babaji area in southern Helmand province, the ministry said.

His family have been informed.

'It is with deep sadness I must inform you that a soldier from The Royal Military Police was shot and killed this morning on operations,' said a spokesman for Task Force Helmand, Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield.

'One of our fellow soldiers taken from us in the course of his duty, and who we will remember,' he said.

The death brings the total number of British killed in Afghanistan to 235 since the US-led invasion in 2001 to oust the Taliban regime.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered Monday to host an international conference on Afghanistan in London in January, which he said could set a timeframe for a gradual security handover from 2010 to Afghan forces.