THE DEAL

BRITAIN may fly a special envoy to Iran to help free the 15 Navy hostages.

The emissary would be a senior Royal Navy officer with the skills to break the deadlock over the crisis.

The envoy would be briefed to tell Iran that British forces would not, and will never, knowingly enter Iranian waters without permission.

It is hoped that this assurance might end the diplomatic stand- off.

"We are not apologising, nor are we saying that we entered their waters in the first place. But it may offer a route out of the crisis," said a Whitehall source.

"It would mean there was someone there with military expertise to explain how seriously we are taking the Iranian concerns."

The move followed a state address from Iran's president Mahmoud Admadinejad, who said: "The British government, instead of apologising and expressing regret over the action taken, started to claim we are in their debt. This is not the legal and logical way..."

But last night US President George W. Bush called for the unconditional release of the British captives, hitting out at Iran's "inexcusable behavior."

"Iran must give back the hostages," he said. "They're innocent, they did nothing wrong, and they were summarily plucked out of waters."

As Iran yesterday appointed a judge to decide whether the captives should face spying charges, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said at an EU summit in Berlin: "What we want is a way out - we want it peacefully and we want it as soon as possible. We would like to be told where our personnel are - we'd like to be given access to them, but we want it resolved."