Britain freezes ties with Iran

LONDON (AFP) - Britain froze official contacts with Iran on Wednesday in an escalating dispute over 15 detained naval personnel, as Tehran said it would soon release the only woman among the captives.

Speaking only hours after Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed to "ratchet up" pressure on the Islamic republic, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman told AFP that servicewoman Faye Turney would be freed "within a day or two."

She featured in footage shown on Iranian television, wearing a headscarf, along with other members of the detained group. They appeared to be in good health.

Amid mounting tensions, fuelled by US navy exercises in the Gulf, Britain unveiled evidence that it said showed Turney, seven other sailors and seven marines were in Iraqi waters when detained last Friday.

Iran again rejected this and played down Britain's decision to freeze contacts with Tehran, saying ties were already "cold and inactive," the official news agency IRNA quoted a foreign ministry source as saying.

All the captives have been held at a secret location but Turkey said its diplomats might be granted access.

Iranian television station Al-Alam said it would broadcast "new footage" of the 15 and an interview with Turney.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett announced the freeze in government-to-government contact in a statement to the British parliament.

"We need to focus all our bilateral efforts during this phase on the resolution of this issue," she said. "We will therefore be imposing a freeze on all other official bilateral business with Iran."

The freeze will undermine trade and investment between the two countries, experts said.

"Since most businesses in Iran are controlled by the state, there is likely to be some impact, but the extent remains to be seen," Middle East analyst Anoushka Marashlian told AFP.

Blair emphasised British determination in the dispute.

"It is now time to ratchet up the diplomatic and international pressure" on Tehran, Blair told lawmakers, adding that "there was no justification whatever" for the detention of the sailors.

"It was completely unacceptable, wrong and illegal," he said.

The prime minister said Britain was in contact with "all our key allies" over the dispute in order to "step up the pressure" on the Iranian government.

Speaking for the European Union, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Iran's action was "unacceptable" and renewed a call for the soldiers' release.

"The British have our full solidarity here," she said.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer also called for their immediate release.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said diplomats from his country may be allowed access to the British military personnel, after he held talks with the Iranian foreign minister at the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia.

Britain and Iran remained entrenched in their differing accounts of where the navy personnel were seized.

British military chiefs used maps and GPS coordinates to affirm that the navy personnel were 1.7 nautical miles (3.15 kilometres) within Iraqi waters at the northern end of the Gulf. It gave the coordinates as 29 degrees 50.36 minutes north and 48 degrees 43.08 minutes east.

The Iranian embassy in London insisted that the British personnel had "illegally entered" up to 500 metres (550 yards) within Iranian territorial waters, Sky News television reported.

"This was a violation of (an) international border ... an intrusive act justified their detention," the statement said.

Offering a grain of hope, it however said it was "confident the two governments are capable of resolving this security case through their close contacts and cooperation."

Britain's ambassador to Tehran, Geoffrey Adams, was to meet Iranian foreign ministry officials again over the sailors' fate, the embassy said.

London argues that the captured personnel were conducting "routine" anti-smuggling operations when they were seized at gunpoint.

There has been speculation that Tehran could use the British personnel as pawns, either to trade for five Iranians being held by US forces in Iraq or for concessions over Iran's controversial nuclear programme.

Beckett said Wednesday that Iran had denied any such motivation.

The United States, which has already voiced "concern and outrage" over the incident, said Tuesday that an unusual exercise involving two US aircraft carrier strike groups in the Gulf was aimed at reassuring friends and allies, not raising tensions with Iran.