By ROBERT BARR
The Associated Press
Wednesday, April 11, 2007; 10:35 AM

LONDON -- Britain's defense secretary said Wednesday he regrets the decision to allow sailors to sell their stories about their detention in Iran to media organizations.

Des Browne said in a television interview that the original decision had been made by Royal Navy officials who were aware that news organizations were already offering large sums to the families of the detainees.

"I was uncomfortable with the decision but I accepted the analysis," said Browne, who reversed the decision Monday.

"So I accept with hindsight _ and I repeat with hindsight __ I could have come to a different view."

The 15 sailors were searching a merchant ship in the Persian Gulf on March 23 when they were intercepted by Iranian vessels. Iran claimed the Britons had strayed into its territorial waters, a charge Britain denied.

The sailors were freed last week by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Two detainees _ Faye Turney and Arthur Batchelor _ struck deals with newspapers that have published their accounts this week. Turney also appeared in a TV interview.

The decision to open a free market in the detainees' accounts was criticized by opposition politicians and retired military commanders, as well as by relatives of British service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Opposition Conservative Party leader David Cameron called for a formal inquiry into the naval operation that ended with the detention of the crew.

"Secondly, we need a full explanation of the calamitous decision ministers made when they encouraged service personnel to sell their stories to the media. This was a dreadful decision and there are still further questions that need to be answered," Cameron said.

Browne explained the decision to allow the sailors to sell their stories.

"While these young people were still in detention in Iran, tens of thousands of pounds were being offered by newspapers and other parts of the media to their families in order to secure these stories," Browne said in the interview, which was broadcast by both Sky News and the British Broadcasting Corp.

"So the issue of payment for the stories was well in the minds of their families and indeed early in the minds of the young people once they were reunited with their families."

Browne said Navy officials believed it was in the interest of the returning sailors to have the opportunity to tell their story to "counteract the propaganda that the Iranians were putting out."

Having decided to allow them to talk, the officials believed regulations did not bar the payments, which were reportedly as high as six figures.

"I wasn't content with it, and I don't think anyone was really content with it, and I include the navy in that," Browne said.

In a newspaper interview published Wednesday, Batchelor said he was embarrassed to be one of only two former detainees to have told his story for money.

"My understanding was that everyone would be giving interviews. I can see why they have done the U-turn but I would have rather been told beforehand," the Plymouth Herald quoted him as saying.

"If they had told me beforehand I wouldn't have done it. I felt like I had disappointed the whole Royal Navy because only two of us did them interviews."

Browne declined to criticize the operations of the HMS Cornwall, the frigate which sent out the 15 sailors to inspect ships in the Gulf. He said thousands of such boardings had taken place in the past without any incident.

"I'm not in a position, and I hasten to add that that most of the commentators are not in a position, to second-guess the decisions of the commanders about how to carry out those operations," Browne said.

"As I said in earlier interviews, as a common part of military operations there is a constant learning process."