China may sign a major order for Airbus A320 passenger jets during a forthcoming visit to France by Premier Wen Jiabao, a source close to the talks said.

Diplomatic sources, meanwhile, said that Wen would visit from December 4 to 7 during a trip that would also include Portugal, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The French leg is to begin in Toulouse, the southern city that is home to Airbus, the world's largest maker of commercial planes.

Wen will urge Airbus to give more parts contracts to Chinese manufacturers when he visits Airbus' head office, said Zhao Jun, director general of European Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

"China will definitely be buying more planes including from Airbus in future, if not during Wen's visit," he said at a press briefing Wednesday in Beijing, declining to say if China's State-owned aircraft buying agency will sign a purchase order next week.

A major order would allow Airbus, which will be surpassed by Boeing Co. for the first time in five years in 2005 aircraft orders, to bounce back from an order of 70 Boeing B737 jets that the U.S. group notched up during the visit to Beijing by U.S. President George W. Bush.

Airbus is looking to China for growth, while carriers in North America and Europe struggle with slumping profits. Chinese airlines may buy 2,293 planes valued at US$183 billion in the next 20 years, as annual growth in passenger traffic is set to beat the global average of 5.2 percent, according to government estimates.

Chinese air travel is growing by double digits annually and the country has become a major battleground for the two aerospace giants.

Boeing currently holds around 60 percent of the Chinese market, with Airbus well back at 28 percent.

Airbus is aiming for 50 percent, and has offered China a 5 percent share in development of the A350 model that is designed to compete with Boeing's future fuel-efficient 787.

Airbus has recorded orders for 66 planes this year in China valued at US$8.3 billion, compared with 122 aircraft valued at US$11.7 billion by Chicago-based Boeing.

China usually announces large import orders during an overseas trip by a government leader or a state visit by foreign dignitaries.

China's aviation manufacturers supply parts for half of the more than 3,700 Airbus planes in service worldwide, Airbus said in August. Airbus plans to buy US$60 million of parts in China in 2007, a fourfold increase from last year and raising the contracts to US$120 million by 2010, the company said.

Boeing, which began selling planes to Chinese airlines in 1982, 13 years earlier than Airbus, said it plans to buy a combined US$1.3 billion of parts in China by the end of 2010.

(Shenzhen Daily December 1, 2005)