PARIS (AP) -- Britain's Defense Secretary Liam Fox said Friday that the idea of sharing aircraft carriers with historical rival France seems unrealistic, though he said other cooperation is likely as the countries look for ways to cut costs.

Fox met Friday in Paris with his French counterpart Herve Morin, who said the countries were discussing possibilities of sharing equipment, including the A400M, Airbus' military transport plane. Morin stressed: "I'm not talking about aircraft carriers."

The Times of London had reported earlier this week that Britain and France were moving closer to a deal to share aircraft carriers as part of moneysaving efforts by both governments.

The British defense secretary said any decision on carriers would have to wait until a current strategic review in Britain is complete.

"In terms of actually being able to share an aircraft carrier, I would have thought that was entirely unrealistic," Fox told reporters. "But when it comes to pooling assets in other areas, such as strategic or tactical lifts, I would have thought that that was a different case altogether."

Reports have circulated for years of a possible naval tie-up between France and Britain, neighbors whose long history of going to war against each other dates back to the Middle Ages.

Morin did not elaborate on how the two governments could share equipment including the A400M transport plane, an ambitious but troubled joint European defense project. The plane is running four years behind schedule and is euro3.5 billion over-budget, and despite reaching an agreement in principle earlier this year on how to share the cost overruns, the seven customer nations have still to sign the final agreement.