European shares fall, focus on Greek debt talks

London - European stocks fell on Friday, with investors discouraged by a lack of progress in Greek debt crisis negotiations heading into crunch talks at the weekend.

Greece failed again to clinch a deal with its international creditors on Thursday, setting up a last-ditch effort on Saturday to avert a default next week or start preparing to protect the eurozone from financial market turmoil.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 0.7% at 1 562.40 points by 09:06.

Traders said the high amount of uncertainty ahead of the negotiations made investors unwilling to leave themselves exposed heading into the weekend.

"By the time the markets reopen next week, Greece may have either secured a deal or accepted default to the IMF," Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA, said in a note.

"With all this in mind, I expect to see significant risk aversion this morning with investors preparing for fireworks over the weekend."