It appears that Airbus had taken my advice and gone with a barrel design ala Boeing
J Leahy has confirmed today that they are sticking to panels.
"I just spoke with John Leahy in Toulouse, the Airbus sales chief and the company's chief commercial officer, and he told me that contrary to last week's published report by Air Transport World, Airbus will not change the fundemental fuselage design of the A350 XWB. It still will have composite panels rather than large one-piece composite barrels that Boeing is using with the 787, Leahy said."
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/a...asp?source=rss
Geoff Thomas (of ATWOnline) states that EADS reasoning behind that is to save time, money and avoid any risks of litigation.