"Elsewhere, global equity markets seem disconnected from events in Japan, the MENA (Middle East/North Africa) region and the eurozone," said Neil MacKinnon, an economist at financial group VTB Capital.

"It is a busy week for economic data, culminating in the latest US non-farm payrolls on Friday," said IG Index trader Will Hedden in London.

"With this in mind, and considering the strong rally seen for much of last week the FTSE may well struggle to make any decent progress in the days ahead." In New York, stocks edged higher after last week's sharp gains. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.16 percent at around 1605 GMT, with the tech-dominated Nasdaq Composite added 0.07 percent. Dealers said better-than-expected US consumer spending figures for January, a gain of 0.7 percent after 0.3 percent in December.

"The US equity markets are modestly higher with a better-than-forecasted increase in personal spending helping to buoy stocks even as the global focus remains on the euro-area debt crisis, Middle East turmoil and the tragedy in Japan," Charles Schwab analysts said in a note. In Asian trade earlier, stocks were mostly lower as workers struggled to bring the badly damaged Fukushima nuclear plant under control amid worrying high radiation levels. Tokyo fell 0.60 percent, Hong Kong was down 0.39 percent and Sydney shed 0.19 percent but Shanghai added 0.21 percent.