A Russian news agency's erroneous report that Russian forces had shot down a combat missile launched at the country from Northern Europe set off widespread alarm bells Wednesday.


The "missile" turned out to be a NASA-funded rocket launched to study the northern lights. The Norwegians launched it successfully within their own territory, without a shoot-down, after informing the Russian government.


Interfax later acknowledged that its report was wrong, saying that three Russian early warning systems had picked up the launch of the missile but that it had come down outside Russian territory. Vyacheslav Terekhov, deputy director of the agency, blamed the mistake on false information from a high-ranking military source.


But Interfax cited other sources in continuing to insist that the missile was military, not research -- an assertion denied by government officials in both Moscow and Oslo.


Following the initial urgent report, Russian government and military officials immediately said they knew nothing about a missile shoot-down.


But at a time when Russia's military is embroiled in a bloody war in Chechnya, the report raised immediate concern worldwide and briefly rattled world currency markets.


Spokesmen for NATO, several European countries and U.S. President Bill Clinton said they were looking into the report. Later, a White House spokesman called it "totally unsubstantiated."


The initial report propelled the dollar about three quarters of a pfennig higher against the Deutsche mark. Germany is Russia's biggest Western trad ing partner.


In Oslo, the Norwegian Defense Ministry said a research rocket was fired from the civilian-run Andoya Rocket Range on Andoya, an island off northern Norway, but with a trajectory aimed away from Russia.


"We are a little puzzled by the report," said Erik Ianke, spokesman for the Norwegian Supreme Defense Command in Oslo.


Valery Grishin, a Russian government spokesman, said Norwegian authorities had fully informed Moscow of the launch of a weather-research rocket.


"The rocket fell on its own -- no one shot it down," Grishin said.


According to a statement from the rocket range, the four-stage research rocket, part of a NASA project, landed as planned 1,050 kilometers from the Russian mainland. (AP, Reuters)