CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez said he ordered two F-16 jets to intercept a U.S. military plane that twice entered Venezuelan skies on Friday, but Washington said none of its planes flew over the South American country's airspace.

Brandishing a photo of the plane, which he described as a P-3, Chavez said the overflight was the latest violation of Venezuelan airspace by the U.S. military from its bases on the Netherlands' Caribbean islands and from neighboring Colombia.
""They are provoking us ... these are warplanes,"" he said.
Chavez said the F-16s escorted the U.S. plane away after two incursions lasting 15 and 19 minutes each.
A spokesman for the U.S. Defense Department denied Chavez's assertion, saying in an e-mail: ""We can confirm no U.S. military aircraft entered Venezuelan airspace on Friday. As a matter of policy we do not fly over a nation's airspace without prior consent or coordination.""