Britain committed to A400M deal - minister

By Harpreet Bhal

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will press ahead with plans to acquire the pan-European A400M military transporter aircraft despite rising costs and delays in its delivery, a government minister said on Monday.

The A400M, being built by Europe's Airbus, has faced repeated production delays and cost overruns leading to disagreements over how to share the costs in a project worth around 20 billion euros (17 billion pound).

Britain has ordered 25 of the aircraft, worth about 100 million euros each, and has laid down strict financial conditions before it will agree to go ahead with the project.

"The A400M is a very important aircraft. We need the A400M as soon as possible for defence," Paul Drayson, the minister for strategic defence acquisition, told Reuters in an interview.

"We are disappointed by the delays and we would like to see the A400M delivered as quickly as possible."

Britain and France said in July they were committed to "finding a positive outcome" for the A400M and suggested they were ready to compromise with Airbus' parent company EADS over who should pay for delays as long as it bore some of the pain.

Airbus says the original contract signed in 2003 is too restrictive for a complex defence project and blames part of the delay on political interference in the choice of suppliers.

Seven NATO members -- Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg and Turkey -- have ordered the plane while South Africa and Malaysia have also placed orders.