French Senate urges Europe leaders to solve A400M row

PARIS Feb 10 (Reuters) - A French Senate panel on Tuesday urged European leaders to intervene directly in a row over delays to Europe's largest military procurement project to prevent damage to European defence and shield some 30,000 jobs.

Members of finance and foreign affairs/defence committees at the upper house said they would send a 90-page joint report detailing problems and lack of oversight in the A400M military airlifter built by Airbus to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "If we want to save this plane, governments must get involved, not parliamentarians. We are asking the president to apply all his weight on this dossier," Josselin de Rohan, a senator with the ruling UMP party, told a news conference.

Blaming engine makers for delays of 3 years, Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA) has called for a renegotiation of the 20 billion euro contact to build a heavy airlifter for 7 European NATO nations, but Germany and Britain have voiced anger over delays.