PARTNERS in the Airbus A400M military plane met yesterday to hammer out the financial details of a £3.2bn bailout to shore up the delayed project.

France has said it hopes to host ministerial talks in Paris on Monday at which any deal could be formally announced, but after many false starts there was no confirmation of the plan.

Delays and problems in developing the West's largest turbo-prop engines have pushed Europe's largest defence project over budget by billions of pounds, forcing seven European NATO customer nations to step in with a mixture of direct aid and guarantees.

Some parts for the A400M are made at Airbus’ Broughton plant on Deeside but the aircraft are assembled in Spain.

Delegates said the nations meeting in Spain last week had agreed the outlines of the package, which would leave plane maker Airbus's parent EADS with losses of £1.5bn on top of £2.2bn it has already written off against cost overruns.

Procurement officials from buyer nations gathered in private at the German defence ministry yesterday and were later expected to bring in EADS chief executive Louis Gallois for joint talks.

The A400M was ordered in 2003 to meet a looming shortfall in military and humanitarian airlift capacity among seven nations – Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey.

The £18bn project has been engulfed in acrimony over rampant overspending and a four-year delay in deliveries for the plane, which European powers want to use in Afghanistan.

The planned new aid package includes £1.8bn in direct price support, or a 10% price hike for 180 planes.

Barring surprises, another £1.3bn would be provided in the form of guarantees set against royalties on future export sales. Britain is seen at odds with others over how this should be structured, insisting it wants the money paid back.

EADS declined to comment ahead of its March 9 results.

Defence sources say Britain will likely meet its roughly £250m share of the core price increase by trimming its order for 25 planes.