Louis Gallois, the chief executive of EADS, was in Berlin on Tuesday, assuring the German government there was still all to play for in a $35bn competition to supply the US Air Force with new refuelling tankers.

The Franco-German aerospace and defence group and its US partner, Northrop Grumman, were expecting the Pentagon to issue its final requirements for the hotly fought competition any day and had high hopes that their proposal, based on a modified Airbus A330, would win the day against a rival offer from Boeing.