Military personnel have been banned from selling their stories to the media, Defence Secretary Des Browne has announced amid a growing row over the returned captives from Iran.

He said the Navy had faced a "very tough call" over its decision to allow the sailors among the 15 hostages to take payments in return for their accounts - the first of which were published today.

But he said everyone concerned recognised it had "not reached a satisfactory outcome" and lessons must be learned from a review of procedures ordered by the Ministry of Defence.

"I want to be sure those charged with these difficult decisions have clear guidance for the future," he said in his first comment on the controversy. "Until that time, no further service personnel will be allowed to talk to the media about their experiences in return for payment."

Military figures, politicians, the families of personnel killed in Iraq and even a former tabloid newspaper editor had joined the chorus of protest. They claimed the individuals were being used as pawns in a propaganda war and warned the move could set a highly dangerous precedent.

Mr Browne, who was aware of the decision, said: "Many strong views on this have been expressed but I hope people will understand that this was a very tough call, and that the Navy had a duty to support its people.

"Nevertheless, all of us who have been involved over the last few days recognise we have not reached a satisfactory outcome. We must learn from this."

He said Navy chiefs had faced a very difficult dilemma.

"The naval officers who had the responsibility of looking after the young people detained in Iran saw that the pressure on them and their families made it inevitable that some of them would accept media offers to tell their story in return for payment," he said. "The dilemma facing the Navy was this: should they refuse to give them permission to accept payment, recognising that some of them would find ways to tell their experiences anyway, without the support and advice of their service, and therefore with greater risk to themselves and crucially also at risk to operational security?

"Or should the Navy accept that in this particular and exceptional case, and in the modern media environment, they should give permission for these young people to tell their story precisely in order to stay close to them but accepting the consequence of the potential payment involved?"

He said the review - announced earlier in the day by the Second Sea Lord Vice Admiral Adrian Johns - would look at "the consistency of the regulations across the services, their clarity and, more broadly, whether the regulations are right for the modern media environment".