AIRBUS Industrie last night claimed a decisive breakthrough in long running talks over a radical reform of its structure but refused to give details.

It said that the four partners which make up the Airbus consortium - British Aerospace (BAe), France's Aerospatiale, Germany's Daimler Benz Aerospace (DASA) and CASA from Spain - had reached broad agreement at talks in Paris.

"As a result of the progress made, a memorandum of understanding has been agreed," Airbus said.

Airbus Industrie is currently a "groupement d'interet economique" under which the partners share work and profits on the basis of their respective holdings.

However, it has been under pressure for some time to change to a more conventional corporate format.

That pressure has been given added force by news of the merger of the world's only other manufacturers of wide bodied civil airliners, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas.

Last night, Airbus promised that the agreement hammered out yesterday would be signed by the partners within the next few days.

But it left open the exact nature of the new structure whether the partners would keep their shares at the existing levels or whether the deal would involve a stock market flotation or the partners putting up new money.

As of now, BAe has 20 per cent shareholding in Airbus Industrie, Aerospatiale and DASA 37.5 per cent and CASA the remainder.

As the best established of the joint ventures within Europe's aerospace industry, Airbus's progress is regarded as an important element in the development of an industry less fragmented than at present by national pride and the complexities of state ownership and defence connections.