The weekly Defense News reported this week that the presence of a US Navy P-3 maritime patrol aircraft and a high-flying U-2 spy plane prompted the Israelis to postpone a test of its long-range artillery missile.

The publication quoted Israeli sources as saying that Israel made repeated requests to get the US military to move the planes from the area but finally decided to delay the test for two days.

"US military aircraft were in international Mediterranean airspace in the vicinity of the Israeli-declared closure area," the Pentagon said in a statement.

"The aircrew were in full compliance with airspace requirements surrounding the closure area and responded appropriately to Israel's communication efforts with them," it added.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.