But gilts lagged their euro zone counterparts, as markets braced for a raft of top-tier data, Bank of England policymakers' speeches and the government's budget this week.

Western powers launched a second wave of air strikes on Libya early on Monday after halting the advance of Muammar Qadhafi’s forces on Benghazi and targeting air defences to let their planes patrol the skies.

In Japan, engineers managed to rig power cables to all six reactors at the Fukushima complex, 240 km north of Tokyo, and started a water pump at one of them to reverse the overheating that has triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.

At 0834 GMT, the June gilt future was down 40 ticks at 118.19, underperforming the equivalent Bund by more than 10 ticks.

In the cash market, the yield on 10-year gilts was 4 basis points higher at 3.553 percent, widening the spread against Bunds to 34 basis points from a 15-month low of 31.3 basis poins struck on Friday.

European stock markets were trading more than 1 percent higher, with Britain's FTSE-100 index up 1.34 percent at 5,793.81.

"Gilts are down along with Treasuries and Bunds in response to a sense of relief," said Marc Ostwald, strategist at Monument Securities.

"It's not a full-scale sell-off but they could be under pressure from firmer equities, commodities, and a sense that the situation in Libya is ostensibly being brought under control," he said.