Defence ministers from seven European countries will hold new talks in France on July 24 on whether to renegotiate a deal with Airbus on its troubled A400M military transporter, the French government said.
The meeting in the southern town of Castellet would decide the "principles on which the contractual renegotiation, which is needed, will go ahead in coming months," French defence ministry spokesman Laurent Teisseire told a press briefing.
The ministers will come from Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey — the only countries to have ordered the A400M, which should have been delivered this year but is at least four years behind schedule because of engine design problems.
A defence ministers' meeting in Spain in June gave another month to decide the future of the A400M.
Britain has indicated that it could withdraw from the deal. But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after a summit on Monday that they wanted a "positive" solution to the controversy over the jet.
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