EADS investors were not authorised to sell shares by the French state ahead of a profit warning that resulted in the sudden drop in their value, according to Thierry Breton, who was finance minister at the time.

The newspaper Le Figaro asserted today that Mr Breton was tipped off that a crisis was brewing six months before Airbus announced problems with the A380 programme.

But speaking to Le Monde, Mr Breton said: “It is false to say the state authorised this operation.”

Le Figaro cited a document it had seen that it said was filed by the French market regulator AMF, with the Paris public prosecutor detailing claims of widespread insider trading by shareholders and executives of EADS ahead of the June 2006 profit warning.

It said that the AMF has decided to narrow its investigation to 21 people at EADS, Airbus and DaimlerChrysler and Lagardère, both of which disposed of large stakes just before the profit warning.

Le Monde cited Lagardère as saying that it was “surprised” by the publication of the document, which it claims does not in any way reflect the “conclusions” of the AMF’s investigation.

It reiterated that the procedure for the disposal of its shares took place in “transparent” conditions and that, on the part of Lagardère, “there was no insider trading”.

Mr Breton, meanwhile, explained that under the terms of the EADS shareholder pact, the state had no power to authorise or forbid the disposal of shares as the other investors were “free” to do as they wished.

Le Monde also cited an unnamed source speaking for the "state" as saying that the tip-off referred to by Le Figaro consisted of a memo from the state equity portfolio manager APE acting in the interests of the state and which did not benefit from any special information regarding EADS.

Le Figaro said that a total of 1,200 alleged cases of insider trading on the shares were detected and that they were “simultaneous and massive” in scale.

It cited the document as saying that the problems in the Airbus A380 programme that led to the June 2006 profit warning were raised as early as June 2005 in an EADS board meeting.

Noël Forgeard, former co-chief executive of EADS, who left under a cloud in July 2006, has personally denied all accusations of insider trading, as has Arnaud Lagardère, the chief executive of Lagardère.

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