The negotiation of a trade dispute on plane subsidies between the U.S. aeronautics giant Boeing and its European rival Airbus was making progress, Boeing's CEO Jim McNerney said on Wednesday.

"I'm beginning to see signs that the two governments are increasing the pace of their dialogue, and I'm supportive of that, " McNerney told reporters in Paris, referring to the ongoing negotiations between the U.S. government and the EU within the WTO to solve the complicated dispute on giving subsidies to their respective plane makers.

"I am hopeful that (the dispute) will be negotiated and resolved," he said.

"Our one hard point is obviously to stop launch aid but there are other elements to negotiate," McNerney added.

Yves Galland, head of Boeing's French division, said that a "certain number of contacts at government level" had boosted hopes for a settlement.

Both Washington and Brussels filed complaints at the WTO against each other in October 2004. Washington challenged the European aid for the European plane maker Airbus to launch new products, while Brussels asked the WTO to condemn assistance accorded to Boeing by U.S. state governments, the U.S. Defense Department and the space agency NASA.

To arbitrate the dispute, the Geneva-based WTO last October named special teams and gave them six to nine months to make a decision on the dispute, reportedly, the most complicated disagreement that it has ever faced.

Source: Xinhua