THE Belfast aerospace company, Shorts, has held discussions with the receivers at the Dutch aircraft manufacturer, Fokker, on further production of wings for Fokker aircraft.

This follows the receivers' decision to complete another 15 aircraft, seven of them Fokker 70s, for which Shorts make the wing sets.

The Dutch company's collapse earlier this year led to the loss of around 600 jobs at the Belfast factory. But the company says it would have no difficulty in restarting production to provide the necessary wing sets for the extra aircraft, a contract which could be worth several million pounds.

However, Shorts has also told the receivers it wants information on their long term plans for Fokker within the next few weeks.