The company owes 9bn euros (�5.9bn; $11bn), despite a renegotiation in 1997.

According to Nicolas Miguet, the leader of the group planning the putsch, the existing management have done little to stem the slide deeper into trouble.

Both creditors and the French and British governments need to shoulder some of the burden, he says.

Falling short

Eurotunnel's main problem is a persistent failure to make its performance match its predictions.

Only 6.3 million passengers travelled through the tunnel in 2003, less than half the 16 million the firm said it expected.

Freight, too, fell far short - the trains pulled only 1.7 million tonnes that year, against a target of 7 million.

That means the firm is having huge difficulty paying the interest on its debts, amounting to almost 500m euros in 2003 - leading to heavy losses despite a slim operating profit.

Pay up

The solution, the rebels say, is to make the creditor banks take more of the burden.

Mr Miguet wants the banks and the states to step in

Much of the debt is now in the hands of hedge funds, who bought it at steep discounts, the rebels say.

"We will sit down with the lender banks and renegotiate the debt," prospective Eurotunnel chairman Jacques Maillot told French radio station Radio Classique.

"The banks have to make an effort."

The line is a popular one in France, since the government pushed hard for popular participation in the company's share offerings in the 1980s.

Two-thirds of shares are in small investors' hands, and 80% of those are French.

Much of the rest is held by a wide range of institutions.

Public help

The rebels' line is ridiculed by existing management, who say the plan is woolly at best.

But there is another plank to the rebel platform: calls for a public-sector bail-out.

Eurotunnel's finances are to some extent governed by the Anglo-French Treaty of Canterbury of 1986.

The agreement means the company cannot simply go bust - but also bans Eurotunnel from seeking state aid.

The rebels say this will simply have to be amended.

But both Paris and London say no money will be forthcoming.