Greek and Turkish F-16 fighters collided yesterday while shadowing each other over the southern Aegean, where the two Nato allies have long disputed control over airspace.

Greece and Turkey, which have come to the brink of war in the past over territorial disputes in the region, gave starkly differing accounts of the crash. But both hurried to limit damage to ties that have warmed markedly in the last six years.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry said it had "learnt with sadness that the Greek pilot lost his life". Athens announced search and rescue efforts were continuing and that he would be considered missing for at least 72 hours before being declared dead.

Greece said the Turkish pilot, flying one of three Turkish planes involved in the incident, had been rescued by a foreign commercial vessel and was later picked up by a Turkish military helicopter after refusing to board a Greek rescue helicopter.

The calm tone of exchanges, contrasting with the bitter rhetoric of the past, highlighted a dramatic improvement in ties between the two long-time rivals.

"Our main concern was not to escalate this into a crisis," a senior Greek defence ministry official told reporters.

But analysts said despite efforts from both sides to play down the incident, this echo of past enmity could hamper further progress.

Turkey said the crash was caused by a Greek fighter interfering in Turkish manoeuvres in international airspace.

Greece said two Greek fighters were scrambled after two Turkish F-16s and an RF-4 jet violated the Athens "flight information region", an area reaching out over the Aegean, heading towards the Greek island of Crete.

The collision occurred at about 8,000 metres, some 34 kilometres southeast of the island of Karpathos, whose mayor, Michalis Ioannidis, told Greek television islanders had heard an explosion but saw nothing.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul called his Greek counterpart Dora Bakoyanni, who is visiting Helsinki, the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement.