Best for Germany if EADS stays independent: German official

Germany's industrial interests are best served if planemaker EADS remains independent, Deputy Economy Minister Peter Hintze said on Wednesday after merger talks between EADS and Britain's BAE Systems collapsed.

"I think that Germany's industrial interests in a strong value chain from research to development and on through to industrial production are best guaranteed in this (independent) form," Peter Hintze, also Germany's official in charge of aerospace policy, told Spiegel Online.

He also said the strength of EADS lay in close cooperation between Germany and France.

(Reporting by Madeline Chambers)