Airbus will lunch A400

The head of European plane maker Airbus is preparing to ditch its A400 M military transport project which is bogged down in talks with clients, a German press report said on Tuesday. But a German official said the intention was to press on with the programme. Thomas Enders reportedly told a group of Airbus directors last month he "no longer believed in pursuing the programme" and had begun to prepare for it to be terminated, the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) said. Lists of engineers to be transferred from the A400 M to the development of two other key aircraft, the A380 superjumbo and the A350 , have already been drawn up, the newspaper added. The German defence ministry, however, said it aimed to continue with the programme and hoped talks could still be wrapped up the end of the month. "We... will continue to clarify the necessary details for a continuation of the programme with the industry until the end of the month," a ministry spokesman said. He added that state secretaries from the seven countries planning to buy the plane were planning to meet in mid-January. An Airbus spokesman said it hoped to wrap up the A400 M negotiations "positively and constructively" by January 31. Airbus and its parent group, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), have been in discussions over cost overruns for several months with the seven countries. A total of 120 aircraft had been ordered for around 20 billion euros (29 billion dollars) but clients are being asked to pony up billions more to cover unexpected costs. The Financial Times Deutschland said Enders estimated the chances of reaching an agreement at around 50-50. And the German boss "is not ready to threaten the civil aviation division, which is doing well, just for the A400 M," a source close to the matter was quoted as saying.