French Defence Minister Herve Morin expressed hope on Monday that the governments buying Airbus's over-budget A400M military plane could reach a deal on the project's huge cost overruns this week.

Morin said the matter could be settled when he holds talks with his counterparts from the seven client governments at a NATO meeting in Istanbul on Thursday and Friday.

"We will meet on the margins of this NATO meeting, again with the goal today of reaching a conclusion by the end of the week," he told reporters.

Morin said a breakthrough could emerge early Thursday during a Franco-German defence and security council in Paris.

"It is obvious that it would help us if France and Germany find a common position during the meeting on Thursday. The French and the Germans are closer than they were a few weeks ago," he said.

France and Germany are the project's biggest clients, with 50 and 60 orders respectively.

The seven client countries have held three meetings with Airbus parent company EADS in recent days to seek a resolution, but no breakthrough has emerged so far on the long-delayed project.

A German representative to the talks said last week that EADS wants the governments to shell out an additional 6.4 billion euros, but clients are willing to give another two billion euros.

Seven countries have ordered 180 of the aircraft for 20 billion euros (28 billion dollars) from Airbus but the project is three years behind schedule and a reported 11 billion euros over budget.

Airbus has threatened to pull the plug unless the seven -- Germany, France, Spain, Britain, Belgium, Luxembourg and Turkey -- stump up more cash, warning that the fate of the European aerospace giant depended on the project.

Airbus has 52,000 employees around Europe, with about 10,000 working on the A400M, a state-of-the-art new aircraft that can carry troops, armoured vehicles and helicopters and would replace Europe's ageing fleet of transport planes.