The release of eight British sailors has been postponed at least until Thursday, Iranian state television reported Wednesday, contradicting reports that the men were already freed.

There was no immediate clarification. Hours earlier, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told The Associated Press the eight Britons had been released.

The sailors were detained Monday for illegally entering Iranian waters as they traveled in three boats on a waterway that runs along the Iran-Iraq border.

Iran's Arabic-language TV channel Al-Alam broadcast an urgent evening report that said: "The second round of talks on the British detainees is postponed until tomorrow, Thursday."

The station had earlier reported that the sailors' release could be delayed to Thursday. It said British and Iranian officials had been negotiating in the southwest Iranian town of Mahshahr near the place where the Britons were detained.

In London, the British Foreign Office said it had not been told officially that the release had been delayed to Thursday. A British diplomat said, however, that a delay was possible because it was already nighttime in Iran.

Earlier Wednesday, the Foreign Office said three British diplomats were traveling from Tehran to Abadan, a port city 30 miles east of the Iraqi city of Basra, to receive the six Royal Marines and two sailors.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman had said that Tehran told Britain the men would be freed Wednesday.

Source: CD/Agencies