MANAMA (AFP) - Bahrain denied a report in a Kuwaiti newspaper that one of its military pilots defected to Iran in a Bahraini air force F-16 that went missing last month.

"The information published Thursday in Al-Qabas newspaper, citing diplomatic sources, concerning the loss of an F-16 and a Bahraini pilot, is baseless," an army spokesman said, quoted in the local press.

At the end of September, a Bahraini military spokesman announced that a Bahraini F-16 had crashed during a training flight in the north of the small Gulf kingdom and that search and rescue operations were continuing.

The military spokesman indicated that the fate of the crew of the US-built fighter was still unknown.

"Search and rescue operations continue and a British company specialised in underwater searches is helping" to locate the possible wreckage of the plane, the spokesman said Friday.

Quoting diplomatic sources, Al-Qabas reported Thursday that a Bahraini pilot had fled to Iran, where he requested political asylum.