New mergers and integrations among European companies operating in the field of aeronautics, electronics, missiles, space and helicopters were reviewed in the meeting in Rome.

"Cooperation in the area has led to a quantum leap in the restructuring of the industry," said Bersani, who chaired the meeting.

An Italian industry ministry statement said the six ministers welcomed new agreements struck recently, both of full industrial integration, like Dasa and Casa and Aerospatiale Matra and Dasa, and of sectorial agreements, like Agusta and GKN Westland, Finmeccanica and British Aerospace (BAe), Finmeccanica and MBD, and the creation of Astrium.

Astrium is to group satellite activities of Dasa -- the German aerospace unit of DaimlerChrysler -- French partner Aerospatiale-Matra and the British group Marconi Electronic Systems.

Mike Turner of British Aerospace said at a press briefing after the meeting that BAe had "no intention of selling its interest in Airbus," the European aviation consortium, after the merger of two of its partners, Aerospatiale Matra of France and Dasa of Germany.

In the next two years "value to be had from that interest could double" because of the development of the widebody A3XX, he said.

Turner argued that negotiations on a change in the make-up of Airbus statutes could become easier within the next few years because mergers in the European aerospace sector had reduced the number of players.

French Junior Industry Minister Christian Pierret hinted that Franco-Italian airplane maker ATR, a subsidiary of Aerospatiale-Matra and Alenia, could seek closer ties with Brazilian aircraft group Embraer.

Pierret spoke after French aeronautics and electronics groups Dassault Aviation, Thomson CSF, Aerospatiale-Matra and Snecma announced earlier in the day that they agreed to buy 20 percent of the capital in Embraer.

Company officials attending Monday's meeting said dialogue between governments and companies must be pursued "to ensure that the most appropiate frameworks are in place and to exploit in the best ways resources available in the fields of research and development."

Ministers encouraged the industries to push common European projects, the statement said.

A sixth meeting in three years is to be held in Stockholm in mid-2000 after further consultations.

The six countries represented at Monday's talks were Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden.

Copyright 1999 AFP. All rights reserved. The material on this page is provided by AFP and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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