Asian marts slip on Greece bailout fears

HONG KONG: Asian markets fell today as traders grew nervous over
Greece's chances of avoiding a default after eurozone chiefs withheld a
new bailout and ordered Athens to agree more swingeing cuts.

The
decision to put off ratification of the rescue cash gives Greece just
under a week to meet three new criteria and came despite the country's
politicians finally agreeing on other austerity measures.

Tokyo
slipped 0.25 per cent, Hong Kong shed 0.40 per cent, Sydney was 0.55
per cent off, Seoul gave up 0.86 per cent and Shanghai was down 0.17 per
cent.

Despite Greek politicians agreeing after lengthy talks on a
tough set of cuts demanded by international lenders Finance Minister
Evangelos Venizelos was told by Brussels more needed to be done to
qualify for the 130-billion-euro (US$171 billion) bailout.

Eurogroup
chief Jean-Claude Juncker told a news conference: "Despite the
important progress achieved over the last days we did not have yet all
necessary elements on the table to take decisions today."

The
finance chiefs urged the Greek parliament to approve the austerity
measures agreed by the political parties when it convenes on Sunday.

They
also called for additional structural spending cuts of 325 million
euros for 2012 and a written pledge from coalition leaders that they
will implement austerity measures.

Failure to agree the measures
and qualify for the cash could see Athens default on its debt
repayments, which many fear could lead it to leave the eurozone and
lead to another global financial catastrophe.

Greece is, however,
close to finalising a debt writedown with its private lenders, hoping
to slash 100 billion euros from its 350-billion-euro debt mountain. EU
economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn said the writedown was near.

"We've
had a nice run up in risk assets this year, but we've got a lot of
event risk this weekend, so investors aren't prepared to commit any more
money to equities at this point," said Sydney-based IG Markets
institutional dealer Chris Weston.

"The fact that Greece has
agreed on fresh austerity measures is positive, but European officials
appear sceptical, and we need to see Greek lawmakers vote through the
austerity measures this weekend," he told Dow Jones Newswires. - AFP