Louis Gallois, chief executive of EADS, has stepped in to resolve an escalating row with one of the FrancoGerman 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.