UK reportedly diverges over Airbus A350 financing

PARIS (Reuters) - Britain is taking a different approach to other nations discussing ways to finance development of the Airbus A350 jetliner, favouring a classic loan over any reimbursable advance, according to French daily La Tribune.

European nations that produce Airbus jets -- France, Germany, Britain and Spain -- aim to decide soon how much money they are prepared to put up to help Airbus get its 11 billion euro (9.4 billion pounds) A350 project off the ground.

Without citing a source, the article set to appear in Monday's edition said Britain was probably prepared to fork over some 500 million euros, but only in the form of a plain-vanilla loan that would be less risky financially.

The other three countries were negotiating advances that could be reimbursed later, it said.

France and Germany were prepared to contribute 1.4 billion euros and 1.1 billion euros respectively while Spain was on track to advance around 300 million euros, the paper said.

Representatives from the four countries should gather this month and had aimed to reach a conclusion by mid-July, it said.

No comment was immediately available from Airbus (EAD.DE) (EAD.PA).

The outcome will be watched closely by the United States, which has already labelled plans to award government loans to develop the A350 jetliner as illegal.

($1=.7133 Euro)

(Reporting by Tamora Vidaillet; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)