The chief executive of European planemaker Airbus said on Saturday talks were continuing with Malaysia on ordering A400M military transport planes and that a deal could come within weeks.
"There will be a Malaysia air show in the next weeks. Let's see if something will be announced over there," Gustav Humbert told Reuters, referring to the Lima '05 air show on December 6-11.
South Africa signed a deal with Airbus in April to buy eight of the aircraft for more than 800 million euros ($971 million), making it the first country outside Europe to join the A400M airlifter programme, a multi-billion euro project shared among seven European nations.
Humbert told reporters recently the planemaker expected to sign a deal soon with Chile to buy up to three of the A400Ms.
Referring to both Chile and Malaysia, Humbert said: "It's up to them to say they are through."
A source previously told Reuters that Malaysia was in talks to buy four or five A400M aircraft.
Humbert said Airbus was also in talks with one or two other countries where he hoped to win A400M orders, but he declined to give details.
Humbert was speaking on the fringes of an event at Fraport's Frankfurt airport, which on Saturday became the first international airport to welcome Airbus's giant A380 superjumbo, due to enter commercial service next year.
About 10,000 people flocked to the airport to see the plane - the second to be built by Airbus - land at the airport shortly before 0700 GMT, Fraport said.
Airbus decided to use the second plane for the test visit to Frankfurt after it switched one of the Rolls-Royce Trent-900 engines on its first four-engine A380 superjumbo as a precaution after crew noticed a temperature increase during a test flight this week.
But Humbert told journalists on Saturday he was satisfied with how tests on the two A380 aircraft were progressing.
"Tests are going very well," he said. "We are very satisfied with this. We are absolutely achieving the number of flight hours we need." Humbert added that there had been some engine oil leaks but that this was "quite normal" during tests.
Fraport's biggest airline customer at Frankfurt airport, German airline Deutsche Lufthansa, plans to start operating four Airbus A380s in its summer timetable from the end of March 2008.
The airline has ordered 15 of the planes, and Frankfurt will be among the first airports world-wide able to handle the A380. Airbus is 80 percent owned by European aerospace giant EADS and a fifth owned by Britain's BAE Systems.
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