* FTSEurofirst falls 2 pct, down for third day
* Italian banks plunge
By Brian Gorman
LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) - European shares fell sharply on Tuesday, extending losses into a third session as euro zone politicians struggled to contain Greece's debt crisis and stop it spreading to Italy and Spain.
At 0748 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 2 percent at 1,076.13, after falling 1.5 percent in the previous session, on renewed worries about the euro zone peripheral debt crisis.
Almost every stock in the pan-European index fell. The STOXX Europe 600 Banking Index fell 3 percent, and is down 14 percent this year, with some of its constituents heavily exposed to the debt in the periphery.
Italian banks Intesa SanPaolo and UniCredit fell 5.2 percent and 7.1 percent respectively, extending the sharp declines of recent days. UniCredit has fallen about 30 percent since July 1.
Other banks to fall included BNP Paribas , Banco
Deutsche Bank
"The bears have it today. There's very little reason for the market to see any strength," Justin Urquhart Stewart, director at Seven Investment Management, said.
"A lot of people have been really shaken by this. They didn't expect the Italian thing to blow up quite so quickly."
The Thomson Reuters Peripheral Eurozone Countries Index was down 4.6 percent.
Euro zone finance ministers promised longer debt maturities and a more flexible rescue fund to help Greece and other EU debtors, but they set no deadline to act and the threat of contagion to Italy and Spain grew.
Oils and miners fell as a stronger dollar hit commodity prices. Oil producer ENI fell 2.5 percent. Miner BHP Billiton fell 2.1 percent.
The euro was beaten down further in Asia on Tuesday, plunging to a record low versus the Swiss franc and sinking to a four-month trough against the dollar on growing concerns that the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis was spreading. (Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters) ============================================================ For rolling updates on what is moving European shares please click on ============================================================ For pan-Europeanmarket data and news, click on codes in brackets: European Equities speed guide................... FTSEurofirst 300 index.............................. STOXX Europe index.................................. Top 10 STOXX sectors........................... Top 10 EUROSTOXX sectors...................... Top 10 Eurofirst 300 sectors................... Top 25 European pct gainers....................... Top 25 European pct losers........................
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