LONDON: Europe's main stock markets slumped on Tuesday as market uncertainty resurfaced over Greece reaching a debt deal with its EU-IMF creditors and the eurozone chief called on Athens to be "realistic".
London's benchmark FTSE 100 slid 1.03 percent to close at 7,030.53 points, with investor outlook also taking a knock from disappointing British growth data ahead of next week's general election.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 index sank 1.89 percent to 11,811.66 points and the CAC 40 in Paris tumbled 1.81 percent to 5,173.38 compared with Monday's close.
In foreign exchange activity, the euro rose to $1.0971 from $1.0889 late in New York on Monday.
"The market goodwill (over Greece)... has all but disappeared," said Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex trading group.
Greece has been trying to negotiate a deal that would unlock 7.2 billion euros ($7.8 billion) in remaining EU-IMF bailout money that the debt-ridden country needs to avoid default and a possible exit from the euro.
But the government of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, elected in January on an anti-austerity ticket, has resisted pressure to continue with a policy of cuts in return for the cash.
On Tuesday, however, Tsipras said he was confident that tough negotiations with his country's EU-IMF creditors would reach a deal by early May.
"The Greeks must adapt their expectations to reality," Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned Tuesday.
That reality is that "there's little money and besides, unaided, Greece at the moment won't pull through," said Dijsselbloem, who is the Dutch finance minister.
In Britain, which unlike Germany and France, is not part of the eurozone, official data on Tuesday showed its economy grew far slower than expected in the first quarter of 2015, in turn delivering a blow to Prime Minister David Cameron's government just nine days before a general election.
Gross domestic product expanded by 0.3 percent between January and March, compared with 0.6 percent in the final quarter of 2014, the Office for National Statistics said in an initial estimate.
GDP, the main indicator of growth, is the last major piece of data on the economy before Britain votes in a knife-edge general election on May 7.
Opinion polls show Cameron's centre-right Conservatives neck and neck with the main centre-left opposition Labour Party.
On the corporate front, shares in BP slipped 0.17 percent to 476.10 pence after the British energy giant announced sliding profit for the first quarter of the year compared with the same period in 2014, amid plunging oil prices.
BP said underlying replacement cost profit -- a measure of earnings watched by the market -- slumped 39 percent to $2.1 billion.
US markets were higher on news that Merck pharmaceuticals beat analysts' earnings forecasts.
Around mid-day in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.24 percent at 18,082.11 points, lifted by a 5 percent jump in Merck shares.
The broader S&P 500 gained 0.16 percent to stand 2,112.28 points, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.03 percent to 5,061.92.
Asian markets mostly fell Tuesday following losses on Wall Street, with Shanghai losing more than one percent a day after hitting a seven-year high.
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