The Norwegian Air Force Thursday scrambled two F16 jets after two Russian military aircraft flew close to northern Norway, according to dpa. The F16 jets were based at Bodo, northern Norway. Russia recently revived a Cold War-era practice of flying bombers on long-range patrols and the Norwegian Air Force has sent up fighters on several occasions to observe them. Meanwhile, Russia confirmed that one of its military planes violated Finnish airspace in an incident last week, the Finnish Foreign Ministry said. Russian Ambassador Alexander Rumyantsev said in a statement that the "violation of airspace was not intentional" but was attributed to "inadequate exchange of information between the flight crew and ground stations." Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva welcomed the statement and a Russian proposal that "specialist discussions be held." A Russian Ilyushin Il-76 type transport aircraft was Friday suspected of entering some 4.5 kilometres into Finnish airspace near the city of Porvoo. Similar violations on the same flight path were reported in August 2005 and April 2006.