TEHERAN: Iran released five British sailors yesterday who were detained last week when their 60-foot racing yacht drifted accidentally into Iran's Persian Gulf waters and was seized.

The elite Revolutionary Guard, whose navy had stopped the vessel, interrogated the yachtsmen and found that their "illegal entry" into Iranian waters had been a mistake, the official IRNA news agency said. "After obtaining necessary guarantees, it was decided to release them."

The British government has been trying to keep the incident from getting tangled up in politics - not only in the rancor between Teheran and the West over Iran's nuclear issue but also the country's own internal postelection turmoil, which has pumped up the leadership's fears of foreign plots.