Anxious wait for Airbus workers.

AIRBUS workers in North Wales have been left on tenterhooks after a probe into alleged illegal subsidies for aircraft development was issued only to US and European diplomats.

The Switzerland-based World Trade Organisation yesterday distributed its preliminary findings into whether the European Union violated WTO rules on aid for the jetliner projects.

WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell confirmed that tightly-guarded copies of the confidential report had been distributed to governmental representatives. Copies were not expected to go to either Airbus or its rival American aircraft maker Boeing.

No details of the WTO findings were immediately available and may not be officially made public for months.

That could leave Airbus workers at the company's wingmaking plant at Broughton, Flintshire, in the dark for some time over an issue which could have a critical bearing on their jobs.

All wings for new Airbus planes - including the in-service A380 superjumbo and the new A350 - are made at the Welsh site which employs more than 6,500 people.

The aircraft development programmes have attracted hundreds of millions of pounds in repayable UK government aid. The US says those payments are illegal.

Airbus says the loans were fair and claims in turn that Boeing got illegal subsidies from US agencies including NASA plus big tax breaks from several states. A ruling on that is expected in six months time.

The WTO panel was widely expected to agree with complainant Washington that Airbus' launch aid was anti-competitive and broke trade laws.