British defence giant BAE Systems urged the government yesterday to give it an advantage in a $4,4bn aircraft carrier contract competition because it is British.

"If BAE Systems is not the system prime contractor for this (project) then it will give us some real problems," chief operating officer Chris Geoghegan said.

The company's nationalist push contradicts the defence ministry's radical policy of promoting a level playing field in arms acquisition.

Unlike almost all other countries with a major defence business, Britain has sought to expose its major arms suppliers to almost full competition from foreign firms - in this case from Thales SA of France.

The British government is due to choose either BAE or Thales in February as a prime contractor to supply two large aircraft carriers that would transform Britain's ability to wield military force far from its own territory. It has budgeted £2,9bn for the ships but is expected to spend much more on commercial contracts to support them through 30 - 50 years of operational service.

Official acceptance of BAE's buy-British argument would be highly damaging to Thales's so-called multi-domestic expansion strategy, much of which has been based on investing in British companies with access to London's defence budget.

So far, the government has given many signals approving of Thales's move into Britain.

Defence procurement chief Robert Walmsley has gone so far as to say that he did not regard Thales as a French company.

This attitude of the UK government has left BAE in an awkward position, since few of its foreign competitors face significant competition in their home markets, least of all in France.

With acknowledgements to Dr. Leon Wessels and Cape Times.