European stock markets closed lower Monday, slipping back after sharp gains made on strong US jobs data last week as investors once again tracked a lack of progress on Greece's debt problems.
Dealers said investors were always likely to have taken profits after Friday's advance on the US new job figures and further foot-dragging in Athens provided the backdrop.
A sharp warning by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel that it was time for Greece to fulfill its undertakings and would not get any fresh aid unless it did highlighted a more uncompromising tone.
A spokesman for EU commissioner Olli Rehn meanwhile said that Greece had already in effect missed the deadline to get the deal done.
"The truth is that we are already past the deadline," spokesman Amadeu Altafaj said. "The ball is in the Greeks' court."
In London, the FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed down 0.15 percent at 5,892.20 points. In Paris, the CAC-40 index lost 0.66 percent to 3,405.27 points while in Frankfurt the DAX 30 was virtually unchanged at 6,764.83 points.
In New York, stocks were also lower as Greece once more provided the focus.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.32 percent at around 1645 GMT with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite off 0.29 percent.
"Another weekend has come and gone and Greece has still not agreed to bailout terms with its creditors," said analysts at Briefing.com.
The modest losses, they said, "reflect an understandable expectation that the equity market is due for some profit taking, regardless of what is going on in Greece."
The euro was weaker but off its lows at $1.3112 from $1.3156 on Friday.
Commerzbank analysts wrote that the Greek situation remained unresolved despite claims that talks at the weekend would settle the issue.
There were also no reports of progress at parallel talks between Athens and its private creditors on a key 100 billion euros debt write-down.
Athens faces default if it cannot find the finds to meeting maturing debt obligations in mid-March.
"Greece's finances remain the main focus of market concern and the weekend didn't appear to bring the much-promised resolution any closer, with still no real signs of an imminent agreement on the new 130 billion euro bailout that the country needs to avoid a default in March," said Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets.
"People are tired of the Greek issue ... it would be good if we could turn the page," said Bruno Cavalier, economist at Oddo Securities.
"We are seeing some of the post-payrolls euphoria starting to fade," said IG Index market strategist David Jones, referring to Friday's US jobs data.
"Greece is likely to dictate market direction" ahead of European interest rate decisions on Thursday, he added.
After two rate cuts and a series of unprecedented liquidity measures, the European Central Bank is expected to hold fire at its monetary meeting this week after recent data, notably in Europe's economic powerhouse Germany, has been surprisingly positive.
The US economy added 243,000 jobs in January, while the unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent from 8.5 percent in December -- the lowest level since February 2009.
Asian stock markets mostly rose Monday, tracking gains of more than one percent on Wall Street. Tokyo rose 1.10 percent and Sydney added 1.05 percent but Hong Kong slipped 0.23 percent.
