AFP - France's financial watchdog began hearings on Monday into insider trading allegations against more than a dozen current and former executives of European aerospace giant EADS.

Former EADS co-chairman Noel Forgeard said he was "serene" as he arrived at the hearing and certain his lawyers would prove he had not misused inside information when he made huge profits selling stock options in 2006.

He and 16 others are accused of rushing to sell off their stakes because they knew EADS' share price would slump when production delays at the company's key Airbus A380 project were officially announced.

EADS disclosed in June 2006 that the A380 double-decker jumbo programme was bedevilled by delays and cost overruns. The news sent its shares tumbling 26 percent in a single day, and eventually forced Forgeard's resignation.

Thomas Enders, current chief executive of EADS' Airbus unit, said he too was absolutely sure he would be cleared by the week-long hearing held in the Palais Brogniart, the former home of the Paris stock exchange.

A total of 17 current and former EADS or Airbus top executives and executives from its main industrial shareholders -- French media group Lagardere and German carmaker Daimler -- are on trial.

They risk fines of up to five million euros if convicted by the Financial Market Authority (AMF) after the hearings, which are not open to the press or public.

A confidential AMF report leaked in July said that seven current and former EADS executives made millions of euros by exercising their company stock options in March 2006, just before the A380 delay was announced.

But the report found that Thomas Enders, as well as shareholders Lagardere and Daimler, had not engaged in insider trading.