A Western diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity said a British draft statement being debated in closed-door consultations was softened to merely note the Council's "concern" about the seizure of the 15 Britons and call for "their immediate release."

But several diplomats said Russia was pressing for a blander statement that would call for "humanitarian access" to the detainees that negotiations were continuing on acceptable language.

The latest text would not mention the fact that the captured Britons and their two boats were, according to London, seized in Iraqi waters, the diplomats said.

The original British draft circulated Wednesday would have the Security Council "deplore the continuing detention by the Government of Iran of 15 UK naval personnel" and back "calls for (their) immediate release".

It would note that "the UK personnel were operating in Iraqi waters as part of the multinational Force-Iraq under a mandate from the Security Council under resolution 1723 (2006) and at the request of the government of Iraq.

Earlier Britain's UN envoy Emyr Jones Parry told reporters that Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates of two British boats were changed by Iran to make it appear they were in Iranian waters.

"It was only when we point out that the detention (of the 15 British sailors and marines) was inappropriate and in our view unlawful that the coordinates were then changed by the Iranian government to be coordinates within Iranian waters," British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said.

"Our position has been consistent for six days. We want these guys all released immediately. We think the detention was inappropriate and I hope I can get the Security Council to rally to that simple proposition," the British envoy said.

The 15 Britons were captured on Friday in the northern Gulf in what Iran insists were its territorial waters but Britain says they were picked up while on a routine patrol in Iraqi waters.

Iran insists that the British sailors crossed into Iranian waters and its foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Thursday that London must recognize a violation of Iranian territorial waters if it wanted to help resolve the crisis.

"They (British leaders) must accept that this violation took place, that would help to resolve the affair," Mottaki told Iranian state television.

earlier related report
Britain takes Iran case to UN
London (AFP) March 29 - Britain took the escalating crisis with Iran over 15 captured naval personnel to the UN Security Council Thursday, as Tehran withdrew an offer to free the only female detainee.

The Iranians also released a second letter apparently written by the captured woman, 26-year-old Faye Turney, in which she suggested it was time for Britain to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

As world oil prices soared to six month highs on the spike in tension, United Nations Security Council members debated a draft British statement calling for the group's "immediate release."

The draft "deplored" the continued detention of the British personnel and noted that they were in Iraqi waters when they were seized at gunpoint last Friday by the Iranian navy.

The position of the 15 has become a key part of the dispute. Iran has insisted the British naval personnel entered its waters at six different points before they were arrested.

In footage on state TV, an Iranian military commander showed charts and a Global Positioning Service (GPS) monitor that he said had been seized from the British sailors and that showed the sailors were detained in Iranian waters.

A British military official had put together a similar presentation on Wednesday when Britain insisted its 15 personnel were in Iraqi waters patrolling legally with a UN mandate.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki demanded on Thursday that Britain accept a "violation" took place, saying if they did it would "help to resolve this affair."

The head of Iran's supreme national security council, Ali Larijani, earlier said Turney would not be released because of Britain's "incorrect" attitude.

Iran did say it would consider a Turkish request to free Turney and to allow the Turkish ambassador to visit the eight detained British sailors and seven marines.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "while saying that because of the bad attitude of the British government this dossier has taken a judicial path, has given the order for the Turkish request to be examined in a positive way," Iranian state television said.

The channel ran footage of Turney and her 14 male colleagues on Wednesday, in which she said they had strayed into Iranian waters.

The film provoked a furious reaction in London. Prime Minister Tony Blair called the Iranian tactics "a disgrace" while his government said it suspected Turney had spoken under duress.

Britain's ambassador in Tehran had lodged a formal protest to Iran over the television footage, the Foreign Office said.

Blair also warned that there were a "whole series of measures" that could be taken to pressure the Islamic republic to hand over the sailors.

"What we have to do in a very firm way, is step up the pressure," Blair told ITV television.

The release of a second letter by Turney -- a first in which she apologised for trespassing was released on Wednesday -- was strongly condemned by both Britain's Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and Blair's office.

"We have not seen this letter, but we have grave concerns about the circumstances in which it was prepared and issued. This blatant attempt to use leading seaman Turney for propaganda purposes is outrageous and cruel," Beckett said.

Larijani, who is also Iran's chief negotiator in its nuclear dispute with western powers, threatened to pursue a "legal path" in the crisis which could delay any solution.

"Instead of sending a technical team to examine the problem, they kicked up a media storm, announced a freeze in relations and spoke about the Security Council. That will not resolve the problem. They have miscalculated," said Larijani.

London announced on Wednesday that it was freezing official contacts with Tehran because of the detentions.

In mounting diplomatic activity, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke to Mottaki about the crisis at an Arab summit in Saudi Arabia. France summoned Iran's ambassador to Paris to express support for Britain's case.

But the United States sought to downplay the sense of crisis.

"There is no reason for us to choose a confrontational path now," US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns told Congress. "We believe diplomacy can succeed and we do not believe that conflict with Iran is inevitable."

The crisis is unfolding against the backdrop of already tense relations between Tehran and the West over Tehran's nuclear programme, with the United States claims is a cover for building atomic weapons.

Two US carrier groups are staging war games in the Gulf near Iran.

The crisis has had a significant impact on oil prices, which rebounded above 67 dollars a barrel in London to six-month highs after Larijani's comments.

earlier related report
Britain seeks to rally world pressure on Iran: experts
London (AFP) March 29 - Britain is increasingly seeking to rally international pressure on Tehran in the stand-off over 15 detained sailors and marines, since its own diplomatic leverage is limited, experts said Thursday.

The broader diplomatic strategy was embodied in efforts underway to seek support at the UN in New York for some kind of statement to put pressure on Tehran over the standoff, which is a week old Friday.

"It would suggest that the initial diplomacy hasn't produced sufficient results," Robert Lowe, an analyst with the London-based Chatham House think tank, told AFP.

A British minister confirmed that the "new phase" in diplomacy promised by London earlier this week was being activated.

"My colleagues are engaged in trying to mobilize world opinion as well as European opinion, because I think there is a recognition that what has happend is wrong," Home Secretary John Reid told Sky News.

"The best way to deal with this is swiftly and diplomatically," added Reid, a key ally of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Initially Britain's response was markedly low-key after the navy personnel were seized in the northern Gulf last Friday, and its allies were also noticeably discrete about rocking the diplomatic boat.

But as the stalemate persisted, Blair vowed on Wednesday to "ratchet up the diplomatic and international pressure," saying Tehran faced "total isolation" unless if handed back the sailors.

London was therefore all too happy to receive expressions of support from the European Union -- in the form of German Chancellor Angela Markel -- and the White House. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett could also use a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Germany this Friday to press them to join London in freezing bilateral ties with Iran, according to The Daily Telegraph.

"The next few days will be (used) to increase Iran's sense of diplomatic isolation," a British government official quoted by the Guardian newspaper said.

For many, the current showdown -- against the background of a stand-off over Iran's nuclear programme, plus its alleged meddling in Iraq -- is tenser than in 2004 when eight British military personnel were seized in Iranian waters.

Tensions inside the Iranian government also make it harder to read Tehran's policy, they added.

The communications "channels are not open in the same way that they were before, so it's much harder this time for the British to talk and the Iranians themselves may act tougher than they did in 2004," Lowe said.

"It's possible it may last for some days yet," he added.

Not everyone agrees that the UN route is the best one.

Laleh Khalili, a Middle East politics lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, thinks Britain has adopted the wrong strategy by trying to internationalize the crisis.

Because of its limited room for manoeuvre, it would be better off working in the wings, Khalili said. "Threats won't do any good, threats will just harden positions. The more that they're threatened, the more they will want to show that they're resisting an imperial projection of power," Khalili said.

"I think quiet diplomatic interaction and in some sense trying to show that the Iranian regime doesn't loose face is the most important approach that they can take," she said. "They are doing some of this."

She added: "And every time there's been talk of sanctions against the position of Iran has hardened."

Analyst Mark Thomas said the situation is worse now under Iran's hardline President Mahmud Ahmedinejad than three years ago under Mohammad Khatami who was seen as a reformist "amenable" to pursuing a dialogue with the West.

Ahmedinadjad's "power base is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard" who are behind the holding of the British personnel, said Thomas of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) in London.

"So it's a far more worrying situation today simply for that fact. The hardliners will have more influence today that they did in 2004," he added.

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