Northrop pulls out of refuelling tanker deal with EADS

US firm Northrop Grumman has pulled out of a partnership with Europe's EADS over a disputed 35-billion-dollar contract to build aerial refuellers for the US Air Force, the two companies confirmed Monday, dpa reported.

Northrop's departure deals a deathblow to the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co's hopes of getting the lucrative contract to build 179 tanker planes.

EADS, the parent company of European planemaker Airbus, and US aerospace giant Boeing Co have been locked in a bitter feud for years over the deal.

The Pentagon initially awarded the contract to the EADS-Northrop Grumman Corp team. But a congressional oversight agency in June 2008 sided with a Boeing protest, forcing the Defence Department to formally reopen the competition last month.

Airbus head Thomas Enders, in a telephone interview with the German Press Agency dpa, said the competition had been prejudiced towards Boeing.