SYDNEY - A QANTAS 767 was forced to return to Sydney on Saturday after taking off when the pilot detected a hydraulic leak, the airline said, denying reports the jet made an emergency landing.

In the third safety scare involving Qantas aircraft in just over a week, the airline said the Manila-bound flight with 200 passengers on board landed at Sydney Airport about 3:00pm (1 pm Singapore time) after the problem was detected.

'It landed without incident after the captain became aware that the aircraft had a hydraulic leak', a Qantas spokeswoman told AFP.

'It was not an emergency landing'. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sky News Australia and Australian Associated Press all reported the incident involved an emergency landing.

On July 25, a Qantas Boeing 747-400 en route to Melbourne from Hong Kong was forced to make an emergency landing in Manila after it developed a large hole in its fuselage.

Then last Monday, a Qantas 737-800 was forced to return to Adelaide after a landing gear door failed to retract.

Qantas said passengers were never in danger in the latest incident.