The seven European countries which have invested billions into the massively costly A400M military transport aircraft have agreed a final deal with its maker, EADS, dpa cited Spain's defence minister as saying today. The high-profile project is estimated to be anything up to 11 billion euros (15 billion dollars) over its 20-billion-euro budget, sparking a bitter tussle between the manufacturer and the countries who ordered it over how to share out the soaring costs. But Spanish Defence Minister Carme Chacon said at an informal meeting with EU counterparts on the Spanish island of Mallorca that the seven countries involved had reached a basic agreement with EADS on how to solve the dispute. The informal meeting will allow ministers to "hammer out some technical details which are still open," Chacon told journalists. She said that the agreement was worth some 1.5 billion euros, but did not specify details. Spain currently holds the EU's rotating presidency and chairs meetings on issues such as defence and home affairs. German government sources reacted quickly to play down the report, saying that the seven customer states had not yet had any reply from EADS on a supposedly final offer they made last week. The A400M, the EU's key military prestige project, is meant to give European armies their own heavy-lift capacity to replace the ageing, US-made Hercules transport plane. One A400M is meant to be able to carry over 100 soldiers, six jeeps, two combat helicopters or one light tank. But production of the plane, which made its maiden flight in December, is nearly two years late. Estimates of the cost overrun range from 5 billion up to over 11 billion euros. A total of 180 planes have been ordered, by Germany, France, Britain, Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium and Turkey. Airbus has said that if the seven countries do not pay more for their aircraft - or reduce their orders - it will scrap the project. Negotiations have been ongoing for some 10 months. Airbus has already received some 5.7 billion euros in advance payments, which it would have to pay back if it scraps the project. With the plane delayed, European governments have been forced into the humiliating position of having to hire heavy transport aircraft from Russia and Ukraine to meet their needs.
