LONDON: Countries involved in the multi-billion euro (dollar) Airbus A400M have voiced their commitment to the delayed military aircraft programme but "not at any price," Britain said on Friday.

Project partners are inviting European plane maker Airbus and its parent group EADS to a meeting "in the next few days to try and achieve an acceptable settlement," a spokesman for the British defence ministry said in a statement.

The seven nations -- Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey -- had held crunch talks in London on Thursday amid doubts over the future of the delayed and heavily over-budget programme.

Meanwhile the heads of Airbus and EADS ramped up pressure on the seven nations this week to pledge more money for the programme by the end of January, warning that the future of the European aerospace giant depended on it.

"All nations remain committed to the programme but not at any price," the defence ministry spokesman said on Friday.

"While the difficulties facing the programme are complex, good progress has been made on all fronts, with the only outstanding issue surrounding any additional funding," he added.

Airbus has said it could scrap the project unless it gets extra money.

Airbus has 52,000 employees around Europe, with some 10,000 working on the A400M, a transporter that can carry troops, armoured vehicles and helicopters.

The seven client nations have ordered a total of 180 aircraft for some 20 billion euros (29 billion dollars).