European shares inch higher early; Ukraine eyed

PARIS, May 12 (Reuters) - European shares rose in early trade on Monday, with France's Alstom (Paris: FR0010220475 - news) rallying after Germany said it would support a tie-up with Siemens.

At 0708 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.2 percent at 1,357.98 points.

Shares in Alstom (TLO: ALSO.TI - news) - which is reviewing a bid by U.S. giant General Electric (Swiss: GE.SW - news) for its energy activities - were up 2.1 percent after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday (Shenzhen: 002291.SZ - news) that the German government would support a tie-up between Siemens and Alstom if the companies decided that it made sense.

Miners were also on the rise, climbing along with metal prices, with Rio Tinto (Xetra: 855018 - news) up 2.5 percent and BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) up 1.5 percent.

The market's gains were seen as being limited, however, by tensions in Ukraine following Sunday's referendum in eastern provinces.

About 40 European blue-chips derive more than 5 percent of their revenues from the Russian market, including Austria's Raiffeisen Bank and Finnish tyre maker Nokian Renkaat (Other OTC: NKRKY - news) , which respectively generate 26 percent and 21 percent of their revenues in Russia, according to data from MSCI (NYSE: MSCI - news) . (Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)