PARIS, FRANCE - FORMER EADS co-chief executive Noel Forgeard has been charged with insider trading over selling company stock in the months before the European aviation group revealed production delays with its A380 superjumbo, his lawyer said.

'Mr Forgeard has effectively been charged by the two magistrates after a very long discussion on insider trading,' said his lawyer Jean-Alain Michel on Friday.

Forgeard was released on his own recognisance, although prosecutors had requested he post bail.

Forgeard, 61, detained by police on Wednesday, is among 17 executives and shareholders facing allegations of selling company stock in the months before EADS revealed production delays with its Airbus A380 superjumbo in 2006.

He was questioned by French financial police for 35 hours before being presented to two investigating magistrates late on Thursday.

Mr Michel declined to specify any of the restrictions placed on his client, and reiterated that Forgeard maintains his innocence.

'He survived the shock, he is in good spirits but he was overwhelmed by being charged,' said Mr Michel.

Forgeard, who resigned in July 2006 over the insider trade claims, maintains he was unaware of the depth of production difficulties at Airbus - the jewel in EADS's corporate crown - when he sold large amounts of EADS stock.

'I am judged guilty, even though nothing has been proven. And nothing will be proven because there is nothing,' Forgeard said in an interview in October.

He said he was being made 'a convenient scapegoat'.

France's financial market regulator, the AMF, said in April it had found evidence of possible insider trading by EADS executives who also include Thomas Enders, a former EADS co-chief executive and current chief executive of Airbus.

It suggested that key shareholders - French media and technology company Lagardere and German automaker Daimler - had sold stock on the basis of 'privileged information' about the group's troubles.

According to an AMF report, it is alleged that Forgeard sold a total of 360,000 EADS shares, held in stock options and worth 4.3 million euros (S$9.1 million), in two batches, in November 2005 and March 2006.

The sales were reported at the time to stock market authorities.

In June 2006, Airbus announced a six-month production delay on the A380.

The extent of the A380 problems threw EADS and its Airbus aircraft unit into crisis.

EADS share price fell sharply and Airbus launched a restructuring programme to shed 10,000 jobs.

The AMF said the EADS shareholders committee - chaired by Forgeard - was informed on March 1, 2006 at the latest of the A380 production delays.

Sources close to the case said a second, unidentified former EADS executive was also taken into custody on Wednesday for questioning.

They said the man, aged 51, worked in Forgeard's office and had been monitoring Airbus operations.

A presidential advisor during Mr Jacques Chirac's term, Forgeard won a fierce leadership struggle at the European aerospace group that saw him named co-head in 2005.

Despite its problems, EADS reported a robust return to profit this month - though it also acknowledged new delays, the fourth in two years, in A380 deliveries.

It announced a first quarter net profit of 285 million euros, exceeding analyst forecasts.

EADS chief executive, Mr Louis Gallois, said meanwhile that France and Germany remain equal partners in their commitment to the troubled Airbus.

'I have not seen any imbalance,' EADS chief executive Louis Gallois said in response to claims that France and Germany were divided over the planemaker's future.

'I have had it up to here with all these baseless charges, always on the same tune - 'The Germans are robbing us and are no good',' Mr Gallois said in Toulouse, the main Airbus aircraft assembly site.

'We cannot go on like this if we want to have a strong Airbus. On the (new wide-body) A350, the division (of work) has been equitable - I don't see any imbalance there.'

Mr Gallois said the French and German production systems were different 'but we are in the process of bringing the industrial processes together'. There have been reports about difficulties between France and Germany on dividing up Airbus, especially after technical problems on the flagship A380 super jumbo project. -- AFP