France and Germany want a "financial gesture" from aerospace group EADS on its much-delayed A400M military transport aircraft, German defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said Wednesday.

Speaking after a meeting with French defense minister Herve Morin, zu Guttenberg said France and Germany had managed to reach a common position on the matter and agreed that the contract must be respected.

"We have managed to define a common position that we will defend tomorrow in Berlin," Guttenberg said.

"Fidelity to the contract is not just semantics," he added.

EADS is in talks to rescue the EUR20 billion euro contract with the seven European nations that ordered the aircraft: Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey.

State secretaries from the countries that have ordered the A400M are due to meet in Berlin on Thursday to discuss the matter.