French minister says U.S. tanker affair not closed

PARIS (Reuters) - A top French minister on Wednesday attacked the United States' handling of an aerial tanker contract, which has seen Europe's EADS <EAD.PA> drop out of the race, and said the matter was not over yet.

"This has gone beyond acceptable," said France's European Affairs Minister Pierre Lellouche, who was speaking after a ministerial meeting.

He added that as far as he was concerned, the multibillion-dollar matter was not closed and would lead to further developments.

Earlier this week, the Pentagon said it may speed up awarding the contract after Northrop Grumman Corp <NOC.N> and EADS <EAD.PA> pulled out, leaving Boeing Co <BA.N> as the sole bidder.

Northrop and EADS had won an initial bid for the contract in but later lost after U.S. government auditors upheld a Boeing protest.

(Reporting by Yann Le Guernigou and Emmanuel Jarry; Editing by Hans Peters)