French Assembly suspended over Airbus row

PARIS, June 20 (Reuters) Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin sparked uproar in the French parliament today when he accused the Socialist leader of cowardice in a debate over an industrial crisis at Europe's leading aerospace company.

Socialist party members stormed out of the National Assembly and weekly questions were suspended after Villepin launched a virulent assault on leftist leader Francois Hollande, who had challenged him over shock delays to the Airbus A380 superjumbo.

''Mr Hollande, I denounce the ease, and I would even say, face-to-face, the cowardice, the cowardice of your position,'' Villepin said, straining to be heard as enraged Socialist parliamentarians rose en masse to protest.

''He's mad,'' Socialist grandee Henri Emmanuelli shouted.

Parliamentary stewards had to stand guard around Villepin as Socialist politicians advanced towards him chanting ''resign''.

The vitriolic exchange underscored deep tensions within parliament just a year before presidential elections, with the flamboyant Villepin struggling to stamp his authority on his conservative government following a string of scandals and rows.

The latest storm to batter the government was unleashed last week when airline maker Airbus unexpectedly revealed significant delays to deliveries of the A380. The news pummelled the shares Airbus parent, European aerospace giant EADS, which is 15 percent owned by the French state.

As the EADS debacle unfolded, Villepin was forced on the defensive over another major industrial project, delaying plans to merge utility French utilities Gaz de France and Suez in the face of opposition from within his own ranks.

''In politics, as in all things, nothing can be built without trust. You have lost the trust of the French,'' Hollande said on Tuesday in an attack that provoked Villepin's fury.

Hollande later called on Villepin to resign.

''For a prime minister to use that sort of language in parliament ... is a sign that he has lost all ability to govern the country,'' he told reporters.

Villepin has staked considerable political capital in attempting to shore up French companies, especially when they seem under attack from abroad.

He put his personal signature on the Suez-Gaz de France plan by announcing it from his office and he told parliament on Tuesday that he would help sort out the problems at EADS.

But his high-handed manner has lost him friends within his own camp, while jostling for prominence ahead of the presidential election has exacerbated the right's problems.

When Villepin took office last June he was seen as a front-runner to win the conservative ticket for the 2007 election, but his political capital has largely evaporated.

An IFOP opinion poll in the weekend Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed Villepin's popularity rating had fallen to 23 per cent from 28 percent a month ago -- the second worst showing for a conservative prime minister in modern times.

Reuters MP DB2149