(OSLO) - Norway called on European Union countries on Friday to help it bring the largest forest fire in its modern history under control.

"We have for several days been in contact with our European Union partners and this contact intensified this morning (Friday) with the aim of obtaining their assistance," Norwegian Justice Minister Knut Storberget said following a crisis meeting on the fire.

Some 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres) of forest have already gone up in smoke in the southern county of Aust-Agder, according to calculations by the Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning (DSB).

"This is the largest forest fire ever registered in modern history" in Norway, Tor Suhrke of DSB said in a statement.

Four civilian and two military helicopters and about 100 firefighters were busy battling the flames, which have been raging for days in an area plagued by drought and high summer temperatures.

Four more civilian helicopters were to join the efforts to extinguish the blaze later Friday, Suhrke told the Aftenposten daily's Internet edition.

Norway, which is not a member of the EU, has requested that members of the bloc send aerial fire-fighting support.

"To my knowledge, we have not yet received a response," Storberget said.

No one has been injured in the fire, burning in a sparsely populated area, but some 70 people have been evacuated from their homes.

A number of fires have in recent weeks also plagued neighbouring Sweden, which has also experienced a long spell of hot and dry weather. A single fire in the centre of the country laid waste to 1,000 hectares.

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