More countries expected to join Global Combat Air Program, Italy says

ROME - More countries could join the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) fighter project involving Italy, Britain and Japan, the Italian defence minister said on Tuesday, stressing that opening the venture to other nations would allow greater sharing of costs.

GCAP is an effort to build a next-generation fighter ​by a joint venture of Britain's BAE Systems BAES.L, Italy's Leonardo LDOF.MI and ​Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement (JAIEC), which is backed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries 7011.T. Partners are planning to build the new jet by 2035.

"The country most interested at the moment seems to be Canada as an observer; we are fully open to it," Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Rome.

"If Germany or other countries, or Saudi Arabia, were to come in, we would be completely willing, because the more there are, the greater the chances of creating something and bringing down costs," said Crosetto, a key ally of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Earlier this month, Germany and France agreed to scrap a landmark project to ​develop and build a new-generation fighter jet as they were unable to break a deadlock between arms firms involved in the plan.

The chief executive of Leonardo recently told Reuters that Berlin would be a particularly valid partner for GCAP as it would bring its industrial expertise to the project.

(Reporting by Angelo Amante, editing by Giulia Segreti and Keith Weir)