GLOBAL MARKETS-Greece weighs on Europe, China cut lifts mining shares

* Euro zone bourses down on Greece fears, bond yields rise

* China cuts rates for third time in six months

* Wall Street set for cautious open

* Oil starts week with weaker tone

By Marc Jones

LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) - A cut in Chinese interest rates kept shares worldwide near record highs on Monday, though euro zone bourses, bonds and the euro were pegged back by a lack of progress in resolving Greece's financing woes.

U.S. stocks looked set for a modestly higher open , according to index futures.

China's third rate cut in six months on Sunday saw Asian markets get the week off to a solid start, but Europe was hesitant with euro zone finance ministers due to meet in Brussels to try to find a way to keep Greece afloat.

Athens has to repay 750 million euro to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday. France's Finance Minister Michel Sapin said Monday's meeting would be not be "decisive", though he had no doubt a deal would come eventually.

The jitters however meant most of Europe's stocks markets were eking out small gains or nursing losses. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 0.1 percent while Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 were down 0.3 and 1.2 percent respectively.

Britain's FTSE 100 index, which includes several heavyweight mining stocks, was up 0.2 percent, as the Chinese rate cut as seen boosting demand for their products.

The euro bore the brunt of the angst, falling half a percent to $1.1143, well below last week's two-month peak of $1.1392.

"I get the feeling in the market that there are increasingly more people who are positioning for a Grexit," Credit Agricole's European head of FX strategy, Adam Myers, said.

"More and more people seem to be taking a pessimistic view. That wasn't there even a month ago."

Two-year Greek yields rose 50 basis points to 21.02 percent and Greek stocks, which rallied sharply last week, were down 3.3 percent.

The nervousness also weighed on Italian and Spanish yields, which both rose more than 6 basis points, while German 10-year yields added 3 bps to 0.57 percent, extending the sharp rise of the last two weeks.

BULLS IN THE CHINA SHOP

A 3-percent surge in Chinese stocks following the rate cut had helped MSCI (NYSE: MSCI - news) 's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climb 0.4 percent, with Japan's Nikkei also up 1.3 percent.

There had been an element of follow-through from the 1 percent gain on Wall Street on Friday after a bounce back in jobs U.S. numbers had lifted sentiment.

That data had also given the dollar renewed energy. It was 0.4 percent higher against other top currencies and up for a third straight session in European trading.

The payrolls figures kept alive the possibility of the Federal Reserve raising U.S. interest rates for the first time in almost a decade as soon as September, although futures markets are still leaning towards December.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year note was at 2.177 percent, compared with 2.15 percent in New York late on Friday. The dollar rose about 0.1 percent against the yen to 119.92.

In addition to Greece's debt woes, the euro was under pressure after German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives were badly beaten in a regional election.

The dollar's widespread strength also meant the pound fell about 0.3 percent to $1.5407, after it notched up a 10-week high of $1.5523 on Friday in the wake of a surprise election victory for Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives.

Oil fell, with Brent down 64 cents at $64.78 a barrel after posting its first weekly loss in a month on Friday as the market fretted again about global oversupply.

Gold tracked sideways at 1,186 an ounce while copper fell slightly to $6,370 an ounce. (Additional reporting by Jemima Kelly in London, Lisa Twaronite in Tokyo; Editing by Louise Ireland)