Louis Gallois, chief executive of EADS, has stepped in to resolve an escalating row with one of the Franco-German aerospace group’s suppliers over costly delays to the A400M military transport aircraft programme.

The EADS boss is understood to have rung Jena-Paul Herteman, his counterpart at engine manufacturer Safran, to call for an end to hostilities over who is to blame for fresh setbacks to Europe’s largest military project.