"After the news conference they can go to the airport and go back home," Ahmadinejad told his ongoing news conference on Wednesday. "They will be going back home today."

"While insisting on our rights, these 15 sailors have been pardoned and we offer their freedom to the British people," Ahmadinejad said.

"I ask (British Prime Minister Tony) Mr. Blair not to judge the military personnel for the truths that they said," said Ahmadinejad, referring to a string of televised "confessions" by the sailors.

"I ask Mr. Blair, instead of reinforcing international tensions and modernising Britain's nuclear weapons and occupying other countries, to return to justice and morality."

He also criticized Blair for the fact that the sole female detainee, Faye Turney, was even serving in the armed forces.

"Among the British who were arrested, there was a women who was the mother of a child. Why do they give such missions to a woman who is the mother of a child to patrol the sea?"

More details to come.