TEHRAN, Iran - Iran released eight British sailors detained for illegally entering Iranian waters two days earlier, but said today it was keeping their three boats.

"The eight British sailors, including six soldiers and two ranking military officials, have been released," a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told The Associated Press. She said that while they were no longer detained, the sailors had not yet been handed over to British authorities. She gave no further details.

State-run television reported that the sailors would leave Iran without the three military patrol boats and some unspecified equipment.

The men were detained Monday in the Shatt al-Arab waterway that runs along the Iran-Iraq border as they were delivering a patrol boat for the new Iraqi Riverine Patrol Service.

A top military official had said the sailors were being released because their intrusion into Iran's waters was apparently a mistake. Two of the sailors were shown on Iranian TV on Tuesday, blindfolded and seated cross-legged on the ground.

"My name is Sergeant Thomas Harkins from the British Royal Marines. I do apologize for entering Iranian territorial waters," the one said on Al-Alam, an Arabic-language station.

The broadcast also showed the men standing next to a river and reading from a prepared text. It also showed the three British military patrol boats and weapons it said had been confiscated.

Iran had earlier said the men would be prosecuted.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman told AP that Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal played a key role in resolving the minor border incident that had threatened to turn into a major diplomatic crisis.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had phoned Kharrazi on Tuesday to ask for the release of the sailors.

The waterway, Iraq's main link with the Persian Gulf that divides Iran and Iraq, has long been a source of tension between the neighbors. The 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war broke out after Saddam Hussein claimed the entire waterway.

Iran said the British vessels were about a half-mile inside Iranian territorial waters.