(Corrects to add "by 2012" in first bullet point)
* Denies plan to outsource 20 percent engineering work by 2012
* Parent EADS looking at longer-term global rebalancing
MUMBAI, Oct 12 (Reuters) - European planemaker Airbus said a report it planned to transfer 20 percent of its engineering work to India and elsewhere by 2012 was wrong, but reaffirmed longer-term plans to shift work abroad.
Indian newspaper The Mint reported on Monday Airbus would move a fifth of its engineering and design activities to low-cost countries, the majority of it to India, by 2012.
"This report is incorrect. The EADS 2020 Vision envisages up to 20 percent of Airbus work could be subcontracted globally by 2020 but this is not new," Airbus spokesman Justin Dubon said.
Airbus carries out most of its work in the four countries that founded it as a consortium 40 years ago -- Britain, France, Germany and Spain. It is part of listed group EADS.
Announced in January 2008, Vision 2020 is a 12-year plan to "rebalance" the parent group as a global company with less reliance on airliner sales for its revenues and on high-cost European factories for its engineering and production work.
The overhaul would curb the exposure of Europe's largest aerospace group to both a weak dollar and civil aviation business cycles, and result in about a fifth of its workforce being located outside Europe compared with a fraction of that now.
In India, Airbus employs 130 people at an engineering centre and nearby training facility in Bangalore and plans to increase this to 400 people by 2012, Dubon said.
The facility helps to speed up design work in Europe by improving simulation of flight management and other systems.
(Reporting by Ami Shah and Tim Hepher; Editing by John Stonestreet and Erica Billingham)