Paris - European aerospace giant EADS will not withdraw from the bidding for a 35-billion-dollar contract for new US air tankers after the Pentagon halted the competition, a company spokesman said Sunday.

"No decision has been taken regarding a withdrawal," Pierre Bayle told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, refuting a report by the German news magazine Der Spiegel.

On Saturday, the magazine had quoted a senior EADS manager as saying the company would only submit a bid "if we are sure we will have a fair chance."

The US Defence Department on Wednesday cancelled the competition that pitted Airbus maker EADS against US rival Boeing, leaving a decision to the new US administration that takes office in January 2009.

EADS had won the contract for 179 Air Force tanker refuellers in partnership with the US concern Northrop-Grumman only to see it put on ice in July after a congressional oversight agency upheld a protest by Boeing. (dpa)