PHILADELPHIA, Aug 26 (Reuters) - The head of the Federal

Aviation Administration said Tuesday the agency plans to conduct

tabletop exercises with Boeing ( BA ) before it will consider

lifting the 38-plane per month cap on 737 MAX production.

"They still haven't asked us to increase the rate, and we

haven't agreed to do anything," FAA Administrator Bryan

Bedford told Reuters on the sidelines of an event at the

Philadelphia airport on Tuesday. "We agreed that it would make

sense to start to develop the process by which we would

entertain a rate increase conversation."

Bedford added he hopes to complete those exercises by the

end of September.