Airbus supported ETOPS since 1970's because Airbus did not produce any intercontinental aircrafts before 1983, when A310 and A300-600 were introduced. ETOPS is mainly used for non-transocean routes, so airlines can use more economical twins for such routes.

But ETOPS is not suitable for long transocean routes, especially for routes going via extreme regions like polar routes, Southern Indian Ocean routes, because this makes passengers have to land at airports without suitable medical facilities, and probably clothing for sub-zero termeratures.

So Airbus is supporting LROPS for maximum passenger safety by using a 'avoid diversion' policy. This requires the use of 4-engined aircarfts flying the extreme regions.

See Airbus FAST Issue 28, Aug 2001

http://www.airbus.com/pdf/customer/fast28/lrops.pdf