LONDON (AP) — The euro was under pressure again yesterday, dropping to its lowest level since early October, amid mounting speculation that Ireland will be forced to get a financial bailout to avoid bankruptcy.

Investors also remained jittery as they awaited developments in the South Korean capital Seoul, where the leaders of the Group of 20 industrial and developing countries were discussing global trade and currencies.

In Europe, the FTSE index of leading British shares closed down just under 2 points at 5,815.23 while France's CAC-40 fell 21.10 points, or 0.5 percent, to 3,867.35. Germany's DAX bucked the trend, rising 3.57 points, or 0.1 percent, at 6,723.41.

Weighing on sentiment is the worry that Europe's debt crisis was getting out of hand. Ireland is at the epicentre of concerns at the moment amid mounting fears that the government will not be able to get a handle on its massive debts and will instead have to get a Greek-style financial bailout.

That view is increasingly evident in the bond markets, where interest rates on Irish government bonds have been rising on an almost daily basis to their highest levels since the euro was introduced in 1999. Yesterday the yield on ten-year bonds breached nine percent and the spread between the benchmark German rate spiked towards seven percent.

This is bad news for the euro, which continues to slide from last week's multi-month high of $1.4281.

By late afternoon London time, the euro was down one percent at $1.3650, just above of its earlier near five-week low of $1.3642, ahead of figures today which are set to show solid growth in the eurozone's core, Germany and France. The trouble however is on the periphery.

The Japanese yen has been falling against the dollar in recent sessions, to the likely relief of the country's big exporters. That boost to sentiment helped the Nikkei 225 stock average close up 30.94 points, or 0.3 percent, to 9,861.46.

By late afternoon London time, the dollar was 0.2 percent higher on the day at 82.46 yen.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.8 percent 24,700.30 while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.6 percent to 4,728.60.

Chinese shares closed mixed even after credit ratings agency Moody's Investors Services upgraded its view on China.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rising 1 percent, to end at 3,147.74. The Shenzhen Composite Index for China's smaller, second exchange fell 0.6 percent to 1,381.49.