EADS chief executive Lois Gallois says he would consider acquiring or forming a partnership with US firms to boost the company’s defence business.

Gallois says EADS’s expansion strategy centres on the defence and security fields, AFP reports.

“One of the possibilities is by using acquisitions or alliances,” he says. “We want to look at that and particularly in the US. The US is important, if you want to be a major actor you have to be in the US.”

Gallois also says he is willing to buy some activites from the French aerospace, defence and communication group Safran, if they became available.