(Reuters) - The euro fell on Wednesday and safe-haven government bonds rose as divisions between euro zone officials over a new aid plan for debt-laden Greece curbed appetite for risky assets. Worry about lack of a substantive progress towards a blueprint for tackling the euro zone debt crisis kept debt issued by the region's weakest states under pressure, and Greek, Portuguese and Irish bond yields held near euro lifetime highs. Euro zone ministers were unable to agree on how private holders of Greek debt should share the costs of a new bailout, putting the onus on the leaders of Germany and France to forge a deal later this week. Selling pressure on the euro also increased after Moody's placed French banks Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale on review for a possible downgrade, focusing on their holdings of Greek public and private debt. That warning depressed European banking stocks, though gains in miners boosted by high copper prices meant the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares traded little changed. "At some stage they (EU politicians) are going to have to grasp the nettle (on Greece). A lot of that is dependent on the banks being strong enough to take the hit," said Justin Urquhart Stewart, director at Seven Investment Management. "The euro is damaged - the people operating it don't want to change it." The euro was down 0.55 percent at $1.4357 after reaching an Asian session high of $1.4451 early on Wednesday after better-than-expected U.S. retail sales and Chinese inflation data boosted risk appetite the day before. It was just above its 21-day moving average at $1.4353, with bids cited around $1.4340-50 and more at $1.4320-25 seen capping losses in the short term. Traders talked about good size stop loss orders at $1.4350. The euro also inched back towards a record low against the Swiss franc hit on Friday below 1.2 euro. SOUR MOOD World stocks as measured by MSCI underperformed European share markets, falling 0.35 percent. "There may be further weakness (for shares). We've seen the best of the corporates now, although they may be boosted by further mergers and acquisitions activity, because companies are sitting on a lot of cash at the moment," Urquhart Stewart said. The sour mood in equities prompted gains in safe-haven U.S. and German government bond prices, pushing 10-year T-note yields a basis point lower to 3.093 percent with equivalent Bund yields dipping to 2.988 percent, down around 3 bps. The yield premiums of Greek, Portugal and Ireland remained close to euro-lifetime peaks with investors expecting a summit of European leaders on June 23-24 to end with the announcement of a second aid deal for Greece. "If they do come up with a package we'll see a knee-jerk re-tightening, but I don't think it will be that sizeable and I don't think it will be that long-lived, such is the erosion in confidence we've seen," said Lloyds Bank strategist Charles Diebel. Dollar strength against a basket of currencies pushed oil prices lower, with Brent crude oil for August delivery down 0.5 percent at $118.79 a barrel. Oil was also on the backfoot on rising gasoline stockpiles in top consumer the United States which signalled fuel demand was stalling. Gold was last bid lower $1,522.10, having risen to $1,530 an ounce earlier on inflation fears triggered by recent strong Chinese economic data. (Additional reporting by Brian Gorman and William James; Editing by John Stonestreet)

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