Cheryl Cole's British soldier wants to take her to dinner as soon as his tour of duty ends.

Royal Marine Andy Baker - known as 'Bagsy' to his friends - met the Girls Aloud beauty when she travelled to Afghanistan on a morale boosting trip for troops earlier this month and after swapping phone numbers, Andy is now counting down The Days until he leaves the country on October 1.

His brother-in-law Graham Peck is quoted by the Daily Mirror newspaper: "Andy would love to take Cheryl out for dinner when he's back in the UK.

"He thought she was lovely, really gorgeous - I think all the guys did.

"Andy contacted me through Facebook, raving about Cheryl and even made a photo of them his profile picture. They met up a couple of times during her trip and hit it off."

Cheryl, 28, and 25-year-old Andy first met at an awards bash and met up again later during an informal barracks dinner but the soldier panicked when he heard Cheryl was planning to call him because he has no mobile phone connection until he leaves the country.

Graham added: "Andy wants her to know that he'll be in touch the moment he lands and wants her to wait for him."

After her trip to Helmand province Cheryl revealed she was so taken with the military hunk she is planning to call him and "see what happens".

She said: "Not only are The Soldiers incredibly brave, a few of them were also incredibly cute.

"I actually came back with a phone number from one lad ... although I think his talking to me was a dare. He started chatting to me after I'd been shot at during a training exercise.

"Obviously it wasn't real ammunition but it was still terrifying. Anyway I think I am going to call him this week and we'll see what happens. I'm sure he's not expecting me to ring but that's why it'll be funny and that's why I'm going to do it."