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European Stocks Edge Higher Before EU Summit

Europe's main stock markets nudged higher at the start of trading on Thursday with traders waiting to see if an EU summit will deliver concrete steps to tackle the Eurozone’s spreading debt crisis.

London's benchmark FTSE 100 index rose 0.03 percent to 5,525.71 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 won 0.05 percent to 6,232.12 points and in Paris the CAC 40 gained 0.11 percent to 3,066.55.

EU leaders debate "a big leap forward" to strengthen their union and save the euro at a two-day summit in Brussels, but divisions might scuttle efforts to bring the currency back from the brink.

European Union heads of state and government gather from 3:00 pm (1300 GMT) as the debt crisis, now in its third year, widened this week.

Cyprus and Spain have joined the earlier victims of contagion -- Greece, Portugal and Ireland -- in requesting aid.

With Italy, the Eurozone’s third economy, also threatened, the EU is under pressure from world leaders to deliver a convincing plan to prevent a collapse of the single currency, which would have unfathomable global repercussions.

Source: Agence France Presse


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