Russia denies Sweden's claim a Russian military jet nearly crashed into a passenger plane

Russia have denied that one of its military jets nearly collided into a passenger plane flying over Sweden.

Swedish defence forces have claimed that on Friday, a Russian aircraft deliberately turned off its transponders, in order to avoid being detected on radar systems used in commercial flights, whilst flying near the Swedish city of Malmö.

The aircraft nearly hit a commercial airliner, which had just taken off from the Copenhagen International Airport in Denmark.

Swedish and Danish fighter jets were promptly scrambled and while the incident passed by without any casualties, Sweden military officials have voiced their concerns to the Swedish media over the actions of the Russian military plane.

"The military aircraft had no transponder but we discovered it on our radar, and warned the civilian air traffic control in Malmö," Daniel Josefsson, a security official for the Swedish battle command centre, told Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish newspaper on Saturday.

Moscow have dismissed the Swedish defence force's allegations, although they did confirm that a plane was flying in the area at the time.

General Major Igor Konashenkov, a Russian Defence Ministry spokesman, acknowledged: "A flight was carried out in strict accordance with international rules on airspace and did not violate the borders of other countries and was at a safe distance from the flight paths of civilian airplanes."

Konashenkov confirmed that the Russian plane's transponders were turned off, something Peter Hultqvist, the Swedish defence minister, branded as "irresponsible".

Hultqvist told local radio: "This is serious. This is inappropriate. It's outright dangerous when you turn off the transponder."

However, Konashenkov denied that any near-miss incidents happened: "There was no condition for aviation incident connected to the flight on Friday December 12 of a Russian military plane in the international airspace over the Baltic Sea."

Konashenkov insisted that NATO military flights close to Russia's borders, are "always carried out with the transponder switched off".

The passenger plane has not been identified, although Danish media reported it had been flying from Denmark to Poland.