Euro edges up in London

The euro inched up on Thursday, supported after European officials signalled they had agreed to help Greece tackle its sovereign debts. EU President Herman Van Rompuy said several key eurozone officials had reached a deal to help Greece as a meeting of the group's 27 leaders, economic advisers and other officials got underway in Brussels.
Concern over how Athens will service its debt has hammered the euro - it is down nearly 10 percent versus the dollar since late 2009 - but it has found its footing this week as expectations of an aid package have firmed. "It looks like some sort of agreement has been reached ... but the euro's response has been cautious as it depends on the details to come," said Ian Stannard, currency strategist at BNP Paribas in London.
A Spanish EU source on Thursday said that financial support for Greece should involve help from the eurozone and the European Union as a whole, and a deal is likely to be finalised by Tuesday. By 1226 GMT, the euro was little changed on the day at $1.3715, pulling further away from an 8 1/2-month low of $1.3585 hit on trading platform EBS last week.
It hit the day's high of $1.3801 but gains were capped at that level, the 50 percent retracement of its rise to a November 2009 peak of $1.5145 from its March 2009 low of $1.2457. The euro rose fell 0.4 percent against the yen to 122.93 yen , but stayed above a one-year low of 120.70 yen hit last week.
The euro has been whipped around in volatile trade this week due to swirling speculation about the extent of support for Greece, while analysts said traders were holding off from taking big positions in the euro before the meeting.
The Australian dollar climbed more than 1.5 percent against the dollar and the yen, buoyed by a bigger-than-expected rise in Australian employment in January while the jobless rate hit an 11-month low.
The Aussie dollar later extended its gains after an unexpected slowdown in Chinese consumer inflation in January soothed some concerns about the need for quick monetary tightening by Chinese authorities. The jump in the Aussie sparked a broad slide in the lower-yielding yen and the dollar, which slipped slightly against a currency basket to 79.987. The dollar slipped 0.4 percent to 89.65 yen.