Blair ready to move to "different phase" if sailors not released

Britain hopes that diplomacy will win the release of 15 sailors and Marines detained by Iran but is prepared to move to a "different phase" if not, Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday.

Britain and the United States have said the sailors and Marines were intercepted on Friday just after they completed a search of a civilian vessel in the Iraqi part of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the border with Iran has historically been disputed.

"I hope we manage to get them (the Iranian government) to realise they have to release them," Blair said in an interview with Britain's GMTV. "If not, then this will move into a different phase," he added.

Asked what that meant, Blair said: "Well, we will just have to see, but what they should understand is that we cannot have a situation where our servicemen and women are seized when actually they are in Iraqi waters under a U.N. mandate, patrolling perfectly rightly and in accordance with that mandate, and then effectively captured and taken to Iran."

Blair said his primary concern was the welfare of the British troops. "What we are trying to do at the moment is to pursue this through the diplomatic channels and make the Iranian government understand these people have to be released and that there is absolutely no justification whatever for holding them," Blair said.

Carrying out a routine search

The eight sailors and seven Marines from the frigate HMS Cornwall were carrying out a routine search of a vessel they suspected of smuggling, British officials said.

Britain insists its forces were not doing anything wrong, but the Iranians have condemned the move as an act of aggression and threatened prosecution.

Iranian officials told the Associated Press on Tuesday the 15 detained British sailors and marines it holds are healthy and are being treated in a humane fashion. They added that the woman sailor had been given privacy.

Meanwhile, the US Navy also on Tuesday began its largest demonstration of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with two aircraft carriers and backed by warplanes flying simulated attack manoeuvres off the coast of Iran.