Airbus SAS, the world's largest commercial-aircraft maker, said it aims to sell a stake in its project to develop the A350 passenger jet to China as early as this year.

The plane maker is offering five percent of the project to China Aviation Industry Corp I and China Aviation Industry Corp II under a proposal in which they will invest and supply parts in exchange for a share of the gains once the plane is sold, Bloomberg News reported.

"We are in active discussions with AVIC I and AVIC II," Laurence Barron, Airbus's chief in China, said in a presentation yesterday at the Asian Aerospace International Expo & Congress in Hong Kong.

"We're hoping to bring this to a close by the end of this year, if not by the Chinese New Year." Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, is controlled by European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co.

(Shanghai Daily September 7, 2007)