Iran considers charges against sailors

By David Clarke

BERLIN (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it was considering charging 15 British sailors and marines with illegally entering its waters, but added it may give consular access to them after an investigation.

Prime Minister Tony Blair denied the navy personnel had been in Iranian waters and said Tehran should be under no illusion how seriously Britain considers the detentions.

The incident raised tensions that were already high with the West over Tehran's nuclear programme. The U.N. Security Council imposed new sanctions on Iran on Saturday. London and Washington have also accused Tehran of fomenting violence in Iraq.

"This is a very serious situation and there is no doubt at all that these people were taken from a boat in Iraqi waters," Blair told reporters at a European Union summit in Berlin.

Iran captured the 15 Royal Navy personnel at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which marks the southern stretch of Iraq's border with Iran, in the Gulf on Friday.

"The charge against them is the illegal entrance into Iranian waters and this issue is being considered legally," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters at the United Nations.

An Iranian official said Mottaki told Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett in a telephone call that Iran may give British diplomats access to the detained sailors at some later stage.

Britain said two boatloads of Royal Navy sailors and marines had searched a merchant vessel on a U.N.-approved mission in Iraqi waters when Iranian gunboats encircled and captured them.