France, Germany want A400M financial gesture from EADS

PARIS Nov 18 (Reuters) - France and Germany want a "financial gesture" from aerospace and defence group EADS (EAD.PA) on its much-delayed A400M military transport aircraft programme, German defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said on Wednesday.

Speaking after a meeting with French defence minister Herve Morin, zu Guttenberg said France and Germany had managed to reach a common position on the matter and agreed that the contract must be respected.

"We have managed to define a common position that we will defend tomorrow in Berlin," Guttenberg said.

"Fidelity to the contract is not just semantics," he added.

EADS is in talks to rescue the 20 billion euro contract with the seven European nations that ordered the aircraft: Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey.

State secretaries from the countries that have ordered the A400M are due to meet in Berlin on Thursday to discuss the matter.

(Reporting by Michel Rose; Writing by Helen Massy-Beresford)