The co-heads of European aerospace and defence firm EADS have told staff they will work closely together to restore confidence in the company, still reeling from a crisis at its Airbus plane business.

The group - a major source of work for aerospace component manufacturers in the West Midlands - is trying to repair its reputation after it was rocked by problems at Airbus that wiped a quarter off EADS's share price and led to the resignations of French EADS co-chief executive Noel Forgeard and Airbus head Gustav Humbert.

A staff magazine interview with German EADS co-chief executive Tom Enders and Forgeard's successor, Louis Gallois, showed a united front at the top of the Franco-German company which has had to grapple with rival national interests.

"There are no resentments, but a concrete will to work together in a more integrated way," said Mr Gallois.

Mr Enders added: "More than ever we need to focus on joint business success and we have no time to fight anachronistic national battles."

Airbus was recently hurt by delays to its A380 superjumbo aircraft and indecision over its new A350 mid-sized model to take on US rival Boeing's 787. The A350 XWB was relaunched at last week's Farnborough International Airshow.

At Airbus, the priorities were to stabilise the A380 programme and make progress towards the industrial launch in the coming months of its A350 series.

"We have to look at costs, processes and our industrial set-up," Mr Enders said. "We know we have deficiencies here, and these need to be tackled if we want to remain competitive in the future."

The goal was to maintain a rough balance with Boeing over time, enabling airline customers to have the choice between two strong competing planemakers.

The chief executives planned to look at the "problem of integration" of Airbus and EADS over the coming months, while the management structure at EADS was "too complicated".

"We will take our time to look at Airbus and the group as a whole, at the management, at the headquarter functions and look into simplifying as much as possible the way of managing this company," Mr Gallois said. "This will take some weeks."

But Mr Enders and Mr Gallois stressed they would make big decisions together.

"When it comes to major decisions, be it on strategy, investments or acquisitions, obviously we will look at them jointly," said Enders. "We'll discuss such matters together with our top management, with the chief operating officers and the executive committee."

He added: "It is clear that particularly on Airbus, both Louis and I will have to spend a lot of time in the coming months."

Meanwhile, European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson said the United States was trying to give Boeing too great an advantage in possible talks to resolve a row with European plane maker Airbus over state subsidies.

The dispute between Boeing and Airbus, in which each side claims the other benefits from subsidies that breach trade rules, was brought to the World Trade Organisation in May 2005 and could prove to be its biggest case ever.