EADS says Lauvergeon, Trichet on board short-list

European aerospace group EADS on Sunday published a list of three names it had proposed to the French government to defend France's defense interests in a restructuring of Europe's largest aerospace company.

The list includes former Areva chief executive Anne Lauvergeon and former European Central Banker President Jean-Claude Trichet, who could also sit on the EADS board, as well as former French army chief of staff General Bernard Thorette.

They will preside over a special holding company for sensitive French defense assets, subject to a response from the government expected within days, it said in a statement.

EADS said its board nominations committee had agreed that Trichet and Lauvergeon would also sit on the main company board if the government accepted the list.

The statement, pointedly setting out procedures agreed in a shake-up in EADS in December, appeared intended to take the wind out of comments from French officials and press speculation that Lauvergeon had already been chosen as next chairwoman of EADS.

Under a deal to make EADS more independent, France can back or reject a list of three national representatives put forward by the EADS chief executive, of which EADS can choose two to sit on the main board, but cannot hand-pick the EADS chairman.

Similar rules have been agreed for Germany.

(Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry, Tim Hepher, Geert de Clercq)