Britain and Italy are considering cancelling or halving their orders for the next batch of Eurofighter aircraft, a Eurofighter spokesman confirmed, following a newspaper report.

Eurofighter executive Aloysius Rauen had told the Financial Times Deutschland that the Nato arm that oversees the project, NETMA, had instructed the Eurofighter consortium to draw up proposals in case London and Rome ordered far fewer of the fighters than originally planned.

"After the NETMA demand, calculations were made based on what would happen if Britain and Italy took only 50 per cent or no aircraft," it quoted Mr Rauen, managing director of the Eurofighter management company, as saying in an interview.

A Eurofighter spokesman confirmed the report, while in London, a British Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "Discussions are ongoing between partner nations and industry. They are at a very early stage. They will continue throughout the next year or so. We are not expecting a decision for some time."

The consortium includes Britain's BAE Systems, Airbus parent EADS, and Alenia, a unit of Italy's Finmeccanica. The aircraft engines are made by Rolls-Royce, MTU Aero Engines and ITP.

The original plan called for Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain to get a third batch of 236 aircraft between 2012 and 2017. Should Britain and Italy drop out entirely, this number would fall by 134 units, the paper said.

A German defence ministry spokesman said Germany would honour its commitment to buying a total of 180 Eurofighter jets.