LONDON (AP) – Britain said it was giving “serious consideration” to a proposal from Iran for freeing 15 British navy personnel and ending the week-old crisis over their capture without a “confrontation.”

The British government refused to disclose the details of the proposal, which could end a standoff that has added to tensions over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and over allegations that Iran is arming Shiite Muslim militias in Iraq.

In Iran, meanwhile, the government’s Arabic-language TV channel broadcast Friday what it claimed was a confession by one of the British Marines detained last week in what Tehran insists were its territorial waters.

“We entered Iranian waters without permission,” Iran’s IRNA news agency quoted the man, dressed in military uniform and identifying himself as Nathan Thomas Summers, as saying.
>{?Britain’s Foreign Office said the proposal was delivered to the British Embassy in Tehran late Thursday.

“We can confirm that as reported in the Iranian media, that the Iranian government has sent a formal note to the British Embassy,” a spokeswoman told The Associated Press late Thursday. “Such exchanges are always confidential but we are giving the message serious consideration and will soon respond formally to the Iranian government.”

The letter stopped short of asking for a formal apology but instead asked for Britain to acknowledge its sailors had trespassed into Iranian waters and come to an agreement that it would not happen again.

The letter appeared to signal a softening of Tehran’s position, offering some hope for an end to the crisis.

The sailors, part of a U.N.-mandated force patrolling the Persian Gulf, were seized off the Iraqi coast while searching merchant ships for evidence of smuggling. Britain insists the sailors were seized in Iraqi waters and has said no admission of error would be made.

The incident came several months into the escalating standoff between Iran and the United Nations over Tehran’s nuclear program.

At Britain’s instance, the U.N. Security Council on Thursday expressed “grave concern” over Iran’s seizure of the military personnel and called for an early resolution of the escalating dispute.

On Saturday the council imposed new sanctions on Iran over its refusal to abandon uranium enrichment, a program that has raised fears Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons.

Crude oil prices rose to a new six-month high, above $66 a barrel, on concerns that the tensions with Iran could jeopardize oil exports as U.S. gasoline supplies wane and demand swells.

Hours before the council issued its statement, a top Iranian official suggested his country may put the Britons on trial.

If Britain continued its current approach, “this case may face a legal path,” Ali Larijani, the main negotiator in Iran’s foreign dealings, said on state radio. “British leaders have miscalculated this issue.”

The Turkish prime minister’s office said Friday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had indicated his government is willing to reconsider the release of the only female among the British captives.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Ahmadinejad on Thursday evening, said Erdogan’s spokesman, Akif Beki.

Turkey is one of the few countries that has good relations with both Iran and the West.

Iran earlier broadcast a video showing the Britons in captivity. That video included a segment showing the female sailor saying her team had “trespassed” in Iranian waters.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain wanted to resolve the crisis quickly and without having a “confrontation over this.”

“We are not seeking to put Iran in a corner. We are simply saying, ‘Please release the personnel who should not have been seized in the first place,'” said the spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.

But in a briefing to reporters, the spokesman said British officials had been angered by Tehran’s decision to show video of the captives.

“Nobody should be put in that position. It is an impossible position to be put in,” he said. “It is wrong. It is wrong in terms of the usual convention