Tehran: Iran has released eight British sailors detained for illegally entering Iranian waters, defusing a dispute that had gone to high levels in both Tehran and London.

"The eight British sailors, including six soldiers and two ranking military officials, have been released," a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told today (June 23, 2004).

The men were detained Monday in the Shatt al-Arab waterway that runs along the Iran-Iraq border as they were delivering a patrol boat for the new Iraqi Riverine Patrol Service. The waterway is known as the Arvand River in Iran.

A top military official had said the sailors were being released because their intrusion into Iran's waters was apparently a mistake.

Two of the sailors had been shown on Iranian TV apologizing and acknowledging they had made a mistake.

Iran had earlier said the men would be prosecuted.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal played a key role in resolving the minor border incident that was turning into a major diplomatic crisis.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had phoned Kharrazi yesterday to ask for the release of the sailors, who were shown on Iranian television blindfolded and seated cross-legged on the ground. The waterway, Iraq's main link with the Persian Gulf that divides Iran and Iraq, has long been a source of tension between the neighbours. The 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war broke out after Saddam Hussein claimed the entire waterway.

Iran said the British vessels were 1,000 metres inside Iranian territorial waters.