"We can confirm that it was a French aircraft and now we have to investigate the details of this".
His comments followed earlier allegations in Sweden's Expressen newspaper that a Russian plane was "a couple of kilometres on the wrong side of the border" but "quickly turned eastward" when a Swedish Jas Gripen plane approached.
Officials in France have yet to comment on the Swedish military's confirmation of a French plane in Swedish airspace.
The claims about a possible Russian violation emerged just a day after Russia's President Vladimir Putin went on German television and insisted that his country had not violated international airspace.
Last month, Swedish intelligence officials released a picture of a Russian jet flying closely beside a Swedish intelligence plane, in what they described as "a growing trend" in international airspace.
The news followed revelations in September that two Russian Su-24 fighter-bombers had been detected flying over Swedish airspace to the south of Öland. The planes were one kilometre inside Swedish territory for about 30 seconds.
Carl Bildt - who was Sweden's foreign minister at the time - described the flights as "the most serious aerial incursion by the Russians during my years as foreign minister".
thelocal.fr
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