Ruediger Luetjen, head of Airbus works council, holds a document with the Power8 programme during a news conference in Hamburg March 1. Employees of European planemaker Airbus have stopped working at three German production sites in protest against job cuts and closures in the company's Power8 restructuring programme. - Reuters

The French Prime Minister defended thousands of job cuts at Airbus on Thursday, but protests over the losses at the planemaker silenced three German plants in a backlash that could threaten recovery hopes.

"This plan is necessary to definitively end the situation of uncertainty," Dominique de Villepin told a news conference.

The Airbus plants were hit with walkouts a day after the planemaker announced 10,000 job cuts, including half from its own ranks and half from contractors to be carried out over four years.

Jamaica's national carrier Air Jamaica currently operates an Airbus fleet, but is finalising plans to switch to Boeing.

EADS shares fell sharply on Thursday, off 4.82 per cent at euro24.65 at 1256 GMT amid news plant protests were spreading.

A weak dollar, a costly two-year delay in delivering the A380 superjumbo and a slow response to rival Boeing Company's hot-selling 787 model are blamed for financial woes at Airbus despite the airliner sector enjoying its biggest bull market in decades.

With a view to helping create future jobs, Villepin said the French government would provide 100 million euros ($132.2 million) in additional aid to the carbon fibre composites sector, an area vital to the A350 plane project.

De Villepin said the A350, would hold "the key to maintaining a strong aerospace industry in Europe."

Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Babka boosted his EADS target price to 30 euros from 28, but cautioned the company must follow-through with plans.

"Management must now execute on its plan and weather any political or employee-related backlash to the announced restructuring," he said.

Airbus plants at Varel, Norden- ham and Laupheim stopped working on Thursday, the IG Metall union said.

"Today's protest is maybe only the beginning. We will not give in until the future of the site, the jobs and thereby the future of the people in the region are assured," regional IG Metall representative in Laupheim Joerg Hofmann said.

The union criticised the restructuring programme, saying Airbus parent firm EADS was selling off plants unnecessarily and shifting blame for management errors on to Airbus staff.

Staged work stoppages

Employees also staged work stoppages in France, including at one plant set to be sold in the western French coastal town of Saint-Nazaire.

Airbus plans no forced redundancies but executives warned these could come if the company's fortunes worsen. The unions said they would fight compulsory redundancies.

Airbus is ramping up production, a process analysts say is vital to its recovery, but one at risk if strikes hit.

Its Power8 reforms call for an operating profit boost of euro2.1 billion (US$2.78 billion) in 2010 as it streamlines operations, including the sale of all or part of six of its 16 main plants.

While unions blamed management for strategic mistakes and governments for not protecting jobs, European Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said governments had played too large a role.

"Airbus is paying a heavy price for bad governance, a control by governments there where one should have had trust in the company," Barrot told Europe 1 radio, urging countries to abandon national interests and focus on the future of Europe.

- Reuters