Talks focus on UK sailors' fate

Talks are continuing to try to end the dispute between the UK and Iran over the seizure at gunpoint of 15 Royal Navy personnel in the Gulf.

The UK says the eight sailors and seven marines had been carrying out routine duties in Iraqi waters and has called for their immediate release.

But Tehran said it had made a "firm protest" about an "illegal entry" into Iranian waters by the navy personnel.

Diplomats have held talks in Tehran and London since Friday's incident.

The personnel, who are thought to be unharmed, were seized after boarding a boat in the Gulf.

Ibrahim Rahimpour, Iran's director general for Western European affairs, said he had met the UK's charge d'affaires, Kate Smith, in Tehran.

He said in a statement that he had delivered a "firm protest from Iran against the illegal entry of British sailors into Iranian territorial waters".

The statement added: "They were arrested by border guards for investigation and questioning."

Mr Rahimpour accused British sailors of having illegally entered Iranian waters "a number of times".

The Royal Navy and UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett denied the personnel from HMS Cornwall, which has its home port in Plymouth, had sailed into Iranian waters.

Mrs Beckett demanded their immediate and safe return.

HMS Cornwall's area of operations

She said: "We understand that they were in two boats that were operating in Iraqi waters in accordance with the Security Council Resolution 1723 in support of the government of Iraq to stop smuggling."

She said Iran's ambassador to the UK, Rasoul Movahedian, had met Foreign Office officials for a "brisk but polite" discussion on Friday afternoon.

HMS Cornwall is currently the flagship of the joint coalition-Iraqi Combined Task Force 158 responsible for patrolling Iraqi territorial waters in the northern Gulf.

Its commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, said he had "absolutely no doubt" the vessel had been in Iraqi waters, adding that it could be "a simple misunderstanding at the tactical level".

The US military said it had been monitoring the movement of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

US Navy spokesman Commander Kevin Aandahl told the BBC: "They were in Iraqi territorial waters.

"We have been operating in those waters for years now. We know what the territorial lines are, we respect those territorial lines and we expect the Iranians to respect those territorial lines as well."

The incident comes at a time of renewed tensions with Iran over its nuclear programme.

It also follows claims that much of the violence against UK forces in Basra is being engineered by Iranian elements, which Tehran denies.