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Euro weakens as Greek debt talks fail

Tokyo - The euro weakened on Thursday after talks between Greece and its European creditors on restructuring the country's bailout broke up without an agreement, with talks set to go down to the wire next week.

In Tokyo, the common currency bought $1.1310 and ¥136.02, down from $1.1332 and ¥136.37 in New York where it had strengthened on hopes for a breakthrough in Europe.

In other trading, the dollar fetched ¥120.27, slightly down from ¥120.35.

Currency markets were largely focused on the meeting where eurozone finance ministers were unable to hammer out a renegotiation of Greece's bailout terms.

Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem said six hours of talks produced no deal on an extension of Athens' €240bn EU-IMF rescue programme.

Greece's bailout is due to expire at the end of this month and failure to agree on an extension would see Greece default on its giant debts, almost inevitably meaning that it would crash out of the eurozone.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras led the hard-left Syriza party to victory in elections last month vowing to bring an end to austerity measures imposed under the bailout.

Germany, the eurozone's main paymaster, has so far resisted Greece's bid to change the terms of its international rescue.

"Everyone is waiting to see whether the high line stance from Germany and Greece waivers, and who waivers the most," Evan Lucas, a markets strategist at IG Ltd. in Melbourne, told Bloomberg News.

The talks are set to resume on Monday.

The dollar was higher against key Asia-Pacific currencies.

The Australian dollar tumbled to 76.50 US cents from 77.74c as official data showed the country's unemployment rate jumped to a more-than 12-year high of 6.4% in January.

The dollar rose to 62.44 Indian rupees from 62.14 rupees on Wednesday, to Tw$31.60 from Tw$31.54 and to 32.72 Thai baht from 32.64 baht.

The dollar also climbed to 1 109.14 South Korean won from 1 096.41 won, to 12 850.10 Indonesian rupiah from 12 701.30 rupiah, to Sg$1.3629 from Sg$1.3564, and to 44.42 Philippine pesos from 44.34 pesos.

The Chinese yuan edged up to ¥19.25 from ¥19.15.

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