Iran's state Al-Alam television on Wednesday broadcasted a video footage of the recently detained British sailors, including a servicewoman.

The footage showed the British soldiers were eating and the only female sailor, Faye Turney, was wearing a white tunic with a black scarf.

"We have trespassed. I'm leading sailman Faye Turney. I come from Britain and I have been in the navy for nine years," said Turney in the video, who was a mother of a three-year-old girl.

"They were very friendly and very nice to us, and very hospitable. They explained to us why we've been arrested, and did no harm, no aggression to us," she added.

Besides, the Al-Alam also aired a brief scene of what appeared to be the British sailors sitting in an Iranian boat in open waters just a few minutes after their capture.

Immediately after the footage was shown, the British government angrily rejected it as "completely unacceptable."

A senior British diplomat said Wednesday that Iran had promised not to show the Britons on TV as what it did in a similar incident in 2004.

Last Friday, 15 British naval personnel were seized by Iranian forces when they were patrolling off the Iraqi borders.

Iran has insisted that the British boats made a blatant "incursion" into Iranian territorial waters.

However, the British authorities said that the incident took place when the British soldiers were engaged in routine boarding operations in Iraqi territorial waters in support of UN Security Council Resolution 1723 and the Iraqi government.

British military commanders Wednesday also used GPS and maps to affirm that the navy personnel were 1.7 nautical miles (3.15 km) within Iraqi waters at the northern end of the Gulf.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said earlier Wednesday Britain would freeze all bilateral talks with Iran until Tehran releases the captured 15 British soldiers.

In June 2004, the Iranian forces detained eight British sailors for the same reason at the same area. The military personnel were paraded blindfold on television and forced to apologize for their "mistake" before they were released.
 
Editor: Yan