AFP - The new head of the Eurofighter consortium has pressed member countries to do more to sell the combat jet abroad, in an German interview published on Monday.

"We need more contracts with support from the governments and a more coordinated support strategy," Enzo Casolini told the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper.

"Look at what Sarkozy has done for France," Casolini added in reference to efforts by the French president to sell Dassault's Rafale jet during recent trips to Brazil and the Middle East.

"Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown, Silvio Berlusconi and Jose Luis Zapatero should agree to similar actions," the aerospace executive said, referring to the heads of governments in Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain.

Those countries recently signed contracts for a third round of production that is to turn out 112 aircraft worth around nine billion euros (13 billion dollars).

But that will only ensure work until 2015, which "for a defence programme, is as though it is tomorrow. We must take care of subsequent years," Casolini said.

He added that 400 companies and 100,000 workers depended directly or indirectly on the pan-European project.

Austria and Saudi Arabia have already agreed to buy the Eurofighter, whereas France has yet to sell the Rafale to another country though it has sold other Dassault jets to Brazil, Greece, India, Lybia and Switzerland.