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Turkish diplomats may be allowed to visit the 15 British military personnel detained in Iran, CNN Turk television quoted Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan as saying after talks with Iran's foreign minister.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett discussed the plight of the 15 personnel in talks with Erdogan in Ankara. Turkey, which has cordial ties with neighbouring Iran, has said it will do all it can to help Britain, a NATO ally.
"It is possible that Turkish diplomats will see the 15 British sailors," Erdogan said after talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Saudi Arabia, where they are attending a meeting of the Arab League.
Erdogan did not say when the meeting might take place.
Erdogan is quoted as saying, "You can expect a positive development at any moment."
Beckett also spoke with Mottaki by telephone during her visit to Ankara on Tuesday. She cut short her Turkey trip and returned to London because of the row with Iran.
The crisis over the captured British sailors and marines has coincided with a new UN Security Council resolution passed at the weekend which imposes sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme. Iran denies Western claims it is building atomic weapons and says the UN sanctions are illegal.
Blair warns Iran
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Tehran of a "different phase" if it does not free the 15 British military personnel.
Iran has said it may charge the British sailors and marines with illegally entering its waters in the northern Gulf. Britain insists they were operating in Iraqi waters.
"What we are trying to do is to pursue this through the diplomatic channels and make the Iranian government understand these people have to be released and that there is absolutely no justification whatever for holding them," Blair said on Tuesday.
"They have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase," he said.
Blair's spokesman said the next step London could take would be to publish proof, in the form of global satellite positioning (GPS) records, that the sailors had not entered Iranian waters.
"We so far haven't made explicit why we know that because we don't want to escalate this," he said.
British officials had shown Iran data on the sailors' exact position when seized.
"I am utterly confident that our personnel were in Iraqi waters and not just marginally in Iraqi waters," Blair's spokesman said.
