TEHRAN, Iran state media reported Wednesday that an Iranian envoy will be allowed to meet five Iranians detained by U.S. forces in northern Iraq sine January — a possible sign of further progress toward ending a British-Iranian standoff.

The report appeared as Britain was preparing to apologize for entering Iranian waters.

A separate Iranian diplomat seized two months ago by uniformed gunmen working for the Americans in Iraq was released and returned Tuesday to Tehran. Iran had blamed the U.S. for the abduction, a charge American authorities denied.

The detention by US troops of the five Iranians diplomats happened in January in Irbil and the US is now about to release them.

Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, himself a Kurd, told The Associated Press that the case of the five detained Iranians had every connection with that of the British sailors and marines.