MARSEILLES based CMA CGM met creditor banks and French finance ministry officials last week to discuss its US$5 billion debt and bleak prospects for 2009 - after enjoying a $124 million profit from $15.2 billion in revenue in 2008.

Talks was focused on how CMA CGM could tap the government's strategic investment fund which aims to help French companies through the global downturn, according to French press reports.

Earlier this month, CMA CGM founder and chairman Jacques Saade urged European governments and banks to act to ensure Europe's top carriers Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM survive container shipping's deepest slump, reported Newark's Journal of Commerce.

"I call on the competent authorities, banks and public bodies to protect the three big European maritime companies and ensure the survival of the maritime sector in Europe," Mr Saade told a meeting of French employers.

The French ship-owners association has lobbied the government to establish a $1.8 billion fund to help carriers meet banks' demands for extra collateral to cover the fall in value of ships on order.