Capture of Britons won't stop US talks with Iran: State Dept.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday backed calls for the freeing of 15 British navy personnel seized by Iran but said it did not affect its plan for high-level talks with Tehran on Iraq.

"The outcome that we need to see is for the British sailors to be released and released unconditionally," said Tom Casey, a US State Department spokesman.

"We want to see (the dispute) resolved peacefully and we want to see it resolved by the Iranians doing the right thing which is letting these guys go."

President George W. Bush also told British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a secure video conference call that he "fully backs" him, a White House spokeswoman said.

However, the State Department's Casey said the dispute had not affected plans for a ministerial meeting of the US with Iran and Syria to discuss the volatile security situation in Iraq.

"As far as I know, there is no rethinking of that idea and we are looking at moving ahead with it as soon as the Iraqis are ready to do so," Casey said.

"I think what our hope would be is that these sailors would be released before such an event took place."

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday that recent regional talks in Baghdad "were a good start toward improved cooperation, and our government is open to higher-level exchanges" with Tehran.

The outgoing US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, held a brief exchange with an Iranian official on the sidelines of the regional security talks in Baghdad on March 10.

Washington still refuses bilateral ties with Iran, however, and has not had diplomatic links with it for 27 years, following the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said she is ready to join her Iranian and Syrian counterparts for talks on Iraq, wracked by insurgent violence following the US-led invasion in 2003. No date for talks has been set.

The capture of the British navy personnel could complicate bids to convene talks, since Britain would be expected to attend as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. But on Wednesday it froze official contact with Iran, except for measures to free the captives.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair told parliament: "It is now time to ratchet up the diplomatic and international pressure" on Tehran. Britain is in contact with "all our key allies" in order to "step up the pressure," he said.

Britain insists the 15 were in Iraqi waters conducting "routine" anti-smuggling operations when they were captured at gunpoint on Friday in the northern part of the Gulf which stretches alongside Iran's southern coast.

A State Department official said the US was reacting cautiously on the incident involving Britain, its main ally in its operations in Iraq, so as not to complicate the dispute.

"In terms of our largely difficult relations with the Iranians, we want to make sure that what we do is supportive of the British effort and does not complicate it," said the official, who asked not to be named.

He said the talks with Iran on Iraq had been postponed because parties had not settled on a date -- not because of the naval incident.

"For the moment, our assumption is that (the talks) will happen, and it would happen some time in April," he said, adding that the talks would likely be held after Easter, April 8.

Two US aircraft carrier battle strike groups, meanwhile, carried out Wednesday a second day of war games in the Gulf with fighter aircraft and warships, but the US denied this was a response to seizure of the British naval personnel.

A US navy official said the decision of where and when to carry out the war games was taken after the capture. But White House deputy spokeswoman Dana Perino said they had been planned for some time and did not reflect an escalation in tensions.

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