TALLINN, June 8, 2008 (AFP) - Estonian armed forces on Sunday accused the Russian military of sending a transport plane over Estonia's airspace, while Russia's defence ministry denied the allegation.

In a statement, the Estonian armed forces said that the AN-72 transport plane entered Estonia's sky at 9:03 pm (1803 GMT) on Saturday, before leaving a minute later.

The plane was flying above neutral waters before straying into Estonian airspace over the island of Vaindloo on its way to the Russian Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad, the military said.

'Before violating Estonian airspace the Russian plane had a contact with Estonian air-traffic control,' it added.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Russian defence ministry countered this information.

'Last night, an AN-72 airplane was in fact coming back from Kaliningrad, but it did not violate Estonia's airspace. The plane strictly respected its itinerary,' said Alexander Drobyshevsky, as cited by Interfax news agency.

'Russian military pilots strictly adhere to the legal norms of flights over neutral waters,' said Drobyshevsky, adding that Estonian air-traffic controllers made no comments to the Russian crew.

The Estonian side charges that the AN-72, which can carry 10 tonnes of cargo, could be used for intelligence purposes.

Estonia, the northernmost of the three Baltic states, was ruled by the Soviet Union until the collapse of the communist bloc in 1991, and, like its neighbours Latvia and Lithuania, joined NATO and the European Union in 2004.

All three countries have regularly complained of airspace violations by Russian military and civilian aircraft, which have to cross close to their skies to reach Kaliningrad.

Russia, however, rarely concedes that its planes have violated the three countries' airspace.