Tony Blair tonight washed his hands of the fiasco surrounding media interviews given by the freed Iranian hostages.

The Prime Minister said he had not been consulted by Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, about the decision to allow the 15 British sailors and Marines taken hostage by Iran to sell their stories.

Mr Blair attempted to draw a line under the affair after Mr Browne went before the television cameras earlier in the day to admit responsibility for the controversial decision.

But the Conservatives continued to demand an inquiry into the events leading up to "calamitous" move.

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If Des Browne had not been 'content' with the Navy reasoning, it was in his power as the Secretary of State to overrule the admiral

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Mr Blair said that he initially had no knowledge of the decision by the Navy - which was approved by the Defence Secretary at the end of last week - when it was made and said it had not been a "good idea".

The Prime Minister insisted everyone involved in the decision had acted "completely in good faith and honourably".

"I did not know about the decision until after it was taken," Mr Blair said.

He added: "With hindsight was it a good idea? No. Do I believe it will happen again? No. But were people acting completely in good faith and honourably so far as the navy were concerned? Yes, they were."

Mr Browne earlier gave a television interview in which he admitted allowing the move by the end of last week even though he was not "content" with the Navy's analysis for doing so, and took full responsibility for it.

The Defence Secretary explained that he had then changed his mind, and subsequently banned the sailors from selling their stories, after taking further advice on the matter last Monday.

By then, no more than two of the 15 service personnel had decided to sell their stories after a backlash by MPs, ex-servicemen, and families of soldiers killed in Iraq, who claimed the move set a bad precedent and made the soldiers pawns in the Government’s propaganda war.

"I knew about the decision. A note indicating the decision and the analysis of the regulations that supported that decision came into my office on Thursday, and early on Friday afternoon one of my officials took me through that. I was asked to note the decision," Mr Browne said.

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