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The move came after two days of questioning by judges over his sale of EADS shares in March 2006 before they slumped by 26% that June.

The fall in value came after serious delays to Airbus's flagship A380 programme were made public.

Investigators want to know if Mr Forgeard was aware before selling.

The former EADS chief was placed under formal investigation and freed from police custody early on Friday morning pending further investigation, said his lawyer, Jean-Alain Michel.

"Mr Forgeard has effectively been charged by the two magistrates after a very long discussion on insider trading," he added.

EADS has yet to comment, although the firm's current chief executive, Louis Gallois, sent a letter to staff last month in which he spoke of his "confidence in EADS managers in total".

'Full transparency'

Also last month, France's stock market regulator said it had uncovered evidence of insider trading and market abuse at EADS and referred the case to Paris prosecutors.

It did not name any individuals in the findings it made public after the 18-month investigation.

EADS said at the time that it would "exercise vigorously" its right to defend itself.

"EADS will support its managers in their defence, it intends to demonstrate that it has applied standards of excellence when communicating to the market and has acted with full transparency," the consortium said in a statement in April.

(BBC)

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