NATO clients for the A400M military plane will meet Friday in Berlin as an agreement with EADS on financing Europe's biggest defence project edges closer, Germany's defence ministry said Wednesday.

The seven NATO clients -- Belgium, Britain, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Spain, Turkey -- will consider the response from EADS to their "final" offer concerning the additional costs of the programme.

The aerospace giant had threatened to pull the plug on the project unless the seven governments stumped up more cash to cover cost overruns of about 5.2 billion euros (7.0 billion US dollars) for the badly delayed project.

The seven NATO nations offered a total of two billion euros in additional financing as well as an additional 1.5 billion euros in credit guarantees.

EADS will be on site, but not "in the meeting room", defence ministry spokesman Christian Dienst said during a government press conference.

The Airbus A400M programme is meant to show Europe's independence from US defence suppliers and employs 10,000 people.