Venezuela jets intercept US plane

CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez said he ordered two F-16 jets to intercept a US military plane that twice entered Venezuelan skies on Friday, but US said none of its planes flew over the South American countrys airspace.
Brandishing a photo of the plane, which he described as a P-3, Chavez said the overflight was the latest violation of Venezuelan airspace by the US military from its bases on the Netherlands Caribbean islands and from neighbouring Colombia.
They are provoking us ... these are warplanes, he said.
Chavez said the F-16s escorted the US plane away after two incursions lasting 15 and 19 minutes each.
A spokesman for the US Defence Department denied Chavezs assertion, saying in an e-mail: We can confirm no US military aircraft entered Venezuelan airspace today.
As a matter of policy we do not fly over a nations airspace without prior consent or coordination.
Senior Obama administration officials said the US Southern Command was unaware of any incident involving US government aircraft in Venezuelan airspace on Friday.