Iran claimed this morning that all 15 British military personnel seized in the Gulf ten days ago have now admitted illegally entering Iranian waters.

New footage was then shown of six more sailors, meaning the majority of the captured personnel have now been paraded and seen "confessing" on Iranian television. Their voices could not be heard.

The broadcast, the morning after two more televised "confessions" from British personnel, a Royal Navy Lieutenant and a Royal Marines Captain, drew an angry reaction from Downing Street, which said the repeated airings would not alter Britain's position in the crisis and that the next move must come from Tehran.

"The Iranians know our position, they know that stage managed TV appearances are not going to affect our position," said the Prime Minister's official spokesman. "They know we have strong international support. People know clearly what our position is and whatever you see on your TV screens is not going to affect that."

The spokesman added that there was "a lot is going on behind the scenes" to obtain the release of the personnel and that the Government’s emergency planning committee, Cobra, was meeting this afternoon to discuss the incident.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that negotiations continued. "We can only reiterate our position," said a spokeswoman. "They’ve been detained against their will, we have not had consular access, we have made it quite clear they were seized in Iraqi waters, and we want them released."

Earlier, Iranian state radio reported that all 15 personnel, eight sailors and seven Royal Marines, had admitted straying into Iranian waters when they were seized on March 23, but news agencies in Tehran said that the extra "confessions" would not be broadcast because of a slight improvement in relations with London.

That followed a weekend of "direct, bilateral communication with the Iranians", according to the Defence Secretary, Des Browne, in which the Government used diplomatic notes and telephone calls to press for the release of the personnel, who were captured by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in the Shatt al Arab waterway off Iraq ten days ago.

But any progress appeared to have been undermined by the public statements of Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who accused Britain of trying to turn a bilateral issue into an international incident and last night's televised "confessions" from the British personnel.

The Foreign Office condemned the broadcast of Lieutenant Carman and Captain Air, who were shown separately in front of a large nautical map admitting that they had "apparently" strayed into Iranian waters during the routine inspection of an Indian merchant vessel. Today's footage showed the other sailors apparently in front of the same map.

Michael Moore, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, described the broadcast as "crude and cynical propaganda". Last week the Iranian authorities released footage of two other sailors, Faye Turney and Nathan Summers, who were also said to have "confessed" to trespassing into Iranian waters. Royal Marine Adam Sperry was also shown.

Gesturing at the map, Captain Air described the events of March 23, saying: "At approximately 10 o’clock in the morning we were seized, apparently at this point here from their maps and the GPS they’ve shown us, which is inside Iranian territorial waters."

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