www.insurancewide.com Hardline Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has cancelled a planned press conference where he was expected to comment on the 15 British sailors detained in his country.

Mr Ahmadinejad's briefing was due to take place later today and observers were keeping a keen eye on what the president would have said about the current stalemate between Iran and the UK.

Tehran claims that the 15 Royal Navy personnel were detained on March 23rd for illegally entering Iranian waters, but the British government has consistently denied this, insisting the sailors were in Iraqi territory working under a UN mandate.

Had Mr Ahmadinejad delivered anti-British rhetoric at his televised conference then recent hopes of a resolution between the two countries would have been dashed.

According to the state-run IRNA news agency, the Iranian leader was set to "expound on Iran's stances on different issues, especially on the latest international and regional development" at his fifth such conference since taking power in 2005.

The latest development comes after Iran seemingly indicated that progress over the issue was possible and allayed earlier fears that the Britons may face a trial.

Britain has indicated it is prepared to consider ways to avoid similar situations occurring in the future while Iran said it will not broadcast any further footage of the detained personnel.

Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran's national security council, told Iranian radio that new talks had been opened, although this has not been confirmed by the Foreign Office.

"They are only at the beginning. If they continue this path they can change the situation logically... in such a way that the issue is resolved."

Royal Marine Captain Chris Air and Lieutenant Felix Carman were shown standing in front of a large map of the Gulf pointing to marks in Iranian waters and apologising for entering them.

It follows similar appearances by Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the only woman among the group, and Nathan Summers, which were broadcast last week.

Speaking from Glasgow today following the latest developments, prime minister Tony Blair reiterated that the "best way to deal with [the crisis] is in a diplomatic way".

He added: "All the way through we had two very clear tracts on this: one is to try and settle this by way of peaceful and calm negotiation to get our people back as quickly as possible; the other is to make it clear that if this is not possible, then we have to take an increasingly tougher decision.

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