UPDATE 1-French bank denies state role in EADS stake buy

(Adds Breton quote)

PARIS, Oct 6 (Reuters) - French state bank Caisse des Depots (CDC) on Saturday reiterated that it did not seek or obtain the approval of the French state before buying a stake in European aerospace group EADS in 2006.

"The Caisse des Depots reaffirms that it neither asked for nor received authorisation from the state to buy EADS shares," the bank said in a statement.

Private shareholders and executives sold shares in EADS, which is 15 percent owned by the French state, shortly before its planemaking unit Airbus admitted production problems in June 2006, leading to a sharp fall in EADS's share price.

France's stock market regulator this week passed a report on possible insider trading to the public prosecutor's office.

CDC bought 2.25 percent of EADS, part of a 7.5 percent stake sold by media firm Lagardere (LAGA.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz). It paid 32.6 euros per share, arguing at the time this was "below the forecast of many financial analysts and below the share price of EADS' main competitors." EADS shares closed on Friday at 22.27 euros.

Saturday's CDC statement came in response to an article in the Le Monde newspaper which quoted an official document which the paper said suggested the state had known about CDC's plan to buy EADS shares in March 2006.

Thierry Breton, the conservative finance minister at the time of the purchase, told a parliamentary committee on Friday that the government had not influenced CDC's decision and welcomed CDC's latest statement.

"I am satisfied that the CDC... has just confirmed in a new statement what I have always said -- that it asked for no authorisation from the state and did not even inform it of the acquisition of the EADS shares ceded by Lagardere," Breton told the Journal du Dimanche weekly.