London (Platts)--26Mar2010/802 am EDT/1202 GMT

Following two days of price declines, crude futures rose through the European morning Friday as the euro firmed against the dollar after the EU unveiled plans to tackle Greece's debt crisis.

At 11:35 GMT, the May WTI contract traded 71 cents higher at $81.24/barrel, while the May Brent contract on ICE was up 86 cents at $80.47/b.

The euro pulled away from 10-month lows against the dollar and traded at $1.3407, up from $1.3277 in New York late on Thursday.

"There is a bit of short-covering going on and the Greek situation has partially helped," a trading source said as prices increased.

The relative weakness of the dollar lent support to the crude complex, despite weak equities which have powered crude price movements in recent days.

Europe's main stock markets fell at the start of trading on Friday as investors reacted to news of the Greek debt deal.

Fundamental factors meanwhile were having a light impact on the crude complex while refining margins were said to be coming under pressure, according to market sources.

"Exogenous markets have been dominating the price formation of crude oil in recent weeks but there is still no strong signal that the oil fundamentals have made a U-shape recovery," Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix said in a report Friday.

--Elzbieta Rabalska, elzbieta_rabalska@platts.com