March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian television showed a second U.K. naval crew member purportedly admitting illegal entry into Iran's waters, after the Foreign Ministry in Tehran demanded a ``guarantee'' that it won't happen again.

Nathan Thomas Summers said he and 14 other sailors and fellow Marines ``entered Iranian waters illegally,'' and ``would like to apologize to the Iranian people,'' according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. Faye Turney, the only female detainee, was shown in a similar interview March 28. Iran today released a third letter said to be from Turney, in which she is described as being ``sacrificed'' to U.S.-U.K. policy.

``I really don't know why the Iranian regime keeps doing this,'' Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters in the English city of Manchester after the Summers video. ``All it does is enhances people's sense of disgust. It doesn't fool anyone.''

The March 23 seizure of the crew in a waterway separating Iran and Iraq has heightened international tensions over the Islamic Republic, which is under United Nations sanctions for refusing to end uranium enrichment for a nuclear program Western countries allege is being used to develop weapons. The U.S. and the U.K. also accuse Iran of supporting attacks in Iraq.

`Big Mistake'

European Union foreign ministers prodded Iran to release the Britons, calling their detention a ``big mistake'' that could do further damage to Iran's international standing.

``The European Union repeats its call for the immediate and unconditional release of the British Royal Naval personnel,'' the ministers said late today in a statement after a meeting in Bremen, Germany.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the U.S. supports Blair. ``We believe that Iran should make the decisions to immediately and unconditionally release the 15 British soldiers being held,'' she said. ``We believe, as Tony Blair has said, that the British soldiers were in Iraqi waters and that they need to be returned immediately.''

Iran called upon the U.K. to ``guarantee'' British vessels wouldn't penetrate Iranian waters again, in a message delivered to the U.K. Embassy in Tehran yesterday that was reprinted today by the official news agency. It didn't repeat the demand by Iran's military yesterday for a British apology in connection with the naval crew seized in the Shatt al-Arab waterway.

British-Iranian Talks

Iranian and U.K. officials have held talks aimed at ending the crisis, Iran's embassy in London said today in an e-mailed statement that included criticism of the UN Security Council's role in trying to resolve the dispute.

``The two governments have been closely examining and discussing the case in order to settle it in a mutually acceptable manner,'' the embassy said. ``Manifestly, the case entails technical, security and legal aspects that require sufficient time to address.''

The embassy also said the detainees were ``safe, well and in good health.''

The third letter purported to have been handwritten by Turney is dated March 27. The author says, ``For our countries to move forward we need to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and leave the people of Iraq to start rebuilding their lives,'' and, ``it is now our time to ask our government to make a change to its oppressive behavior towards other people.''

Geneva Conventions

Iran's publicizing of the captive Britons violates the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of people in international conflicts, lawyers David Rivkin and Lee Casey, members of the UN Sub-commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, wrote in the Los Angeles Times today.

Military personnel are obliged to give name, rank, service number and date of birth in any interrogations, while they must be protected against violence and ``insults and public curiosity,'' according to the conventions. This can include ``parading them before television cameras and using them as propaganda tools, as has already been done,'' the lawyers wrote.

Iran became a signatory to the Geneva Conventions in 1957.

In June 2004, Iran detained eight British servicemen after capturing them in the Shatt al-Arab. They were released after just three days because relations between the U.K. and Iran were stronger at the time, according to Robert Lowe, manager of the Middle East program at the London-based Chatham House international affairs institute.

`Won't Push Too Far'

Still, Lowe said he didn't think the latest dispute will escalate into a military conflict.

``My feeling is that the Iranians won't push this too far,'' he said. ``There are those who would seek confrontation in Iran but there are many more who are pragmatic and moderate, and would not wish this to spiral out of control.''

The two boats operated by the sailors and Marines detained last week were 1.7 nautical miles (3.1 kilometers) inside Iraqi waters, the U.K. government has said. Iran says the vessels were half a kilometer inside its territorial waters.

``There is potential for common ground based on the principle that this shouldn't happen again in the future,'' former British ambassador to Iran Richard Dalton told Bloomberg News in London today. ``Each side has either got to find middle ground or one side has to stand down.''

The UN Security Council yesterday said Iran should release the U.K. service personnel and called for an ``early resolution to this problem.'' The UN has no role in the dispute, and attempts to engage the Security Council with a ``purely bilateral'' issue ``are completely unacceptable, unwarranted and unjustifiable'' the Iranian Embassy in London said today.

Financial regulators in Italy and the U.K. froze assets of Iran's Bank Sepah. The Italian central bank today said the action was in compliance with sanctions detailed in a March 24 resolution by the UN Security Council in response to Iran's nuclear program.

To contact the reporters on this story: Robin Stringer in London at rstringer@bloomberg.net; Caroline Alexander in London at calexander1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 30, 2007 14:55 EDT