Managers of the aircraft maker, a unit of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), hope to set up a US production facility to assemble or equip their civilian jetliners for military uses.

Once a factory is running, it also could handle jets for commercial-airline clients in the Americas, the newspaper said.

The Toulouse, France-based Airbus first floated the idea last year, but now top company officials are reiterating it in interviews, the newspaper said.

Noel Forgeard, chief executive of Airbus, said if Airbus planes were used for military purposes, "it would make sense" to put a production facility in the United States, according the Wall Street Journal.

Forgeard said that while final assembly "is something very visible," it accounts for only a small portion of the total value-added in manufacturing a jetliner.

He also said "to transfer existing commercial production may not make much sense," adding that Airbus has "no immediate plans for production" in the US.

Ralph Crosby, chairman of EADS North America, said the timing is "an investment question."

If a specific Pentagon requirement arose and Airbus could "blend in enough US content to make it attractive, we'd do it at the drop of a hat," he said.

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