German govt pushes ahead on EADS stake purchase by KfW

BERLIN Oct 23 (Reuters) - The German government is pressing ahead with its plan to buy a stake in Airbus parent EADS from Daimler, after this month's collapse of a merger plan with BAE, and has asked parliament to free up funds for the purchase.

In a letter made available to Reuters, the Finance Ministry wrote to members of the parliamentary budgetary committee asking them to give a green light to the talks and to release 1.6 billion euros so that state-owned development bank KfW could proceed.

Plans for the $45 billion merger to form the world's largest aerospace and defence group fell part earlier this month with most of the participants blaming German Chancellor Angela Merkel for derailing the deal, something Berlin denies.

KfW has been in talks for a year with Daimler, a founder of EADS, to buy a 7.5 percent stake as the automaker refocuses on cars. The talks paused during the merger bid.