Boeing said its chief executive had not altered the latest delivery guidance on the 787 Dreamliner after a newspaper said he had expressed confidence in delivering the plane by end-year.

Boeing last week said deliveries could slip into 2011 but that no decision had been taken.

In a summary of an interview given to European Sunday newspapers by Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney, released on Saturday, Germany's Welt am Sonntag said: The Boeing chief was also confident that the first Dreamliner 787 can be, as announced, delivered by the end of 2010.

A Boeing spokesman clarified that McNerney had stuck to the same script on deliveries as the 787 general manager last week.

In a partial transcript of the interview made available by Boeing to clarify his comments on deliveries, McNerney said: The plan remains to deliver the planes by the end of the year. Having said that, there is not much margin in the schedule, and there's a lot of activities and data collection and things that we've got to get done, largely routine in nature, but nonetheless, could impact the schedule by weeks.

Welt am Sonntag also said McNerney had made upbeat comments on the economy and new orders this year.

We have left a difficult economic phase behind us, are financially healthy with a large order book, the newspaper quoted McNerney as saying.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan and Tim Hepher; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Germany