ANTIQUES SHOPS

Group of 20 leaders from major industrialized and developing economies, representing more than 80 percent of world output, start a two-day meeting in this Pacific resort to prioritize growth and job creation as the path to bolstering a world economy that is running out of steam.

Escalating violence in Syria and the near-collapse of a United Nations-brokered peace plan also will be in focus when U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the summit on Monday. The two super powers are clashing over arming Syria and U.N. sanctions.

But Europe's progress toward lasting solutions for its debt crisis will be the focal point when G20 leaders hold their opening session on the global economy. While the Greek vote has eased immediate uncertainty over a possible euro zone breakup, the relief in financial markets could quickly evaporate.

G20 countries want to hear whether Europe is moving toward adopting a firm roadmap with a timetable for achieving the huge leap of financial, fiscal and political union in order to strengthen the resiliency of monetary union -- a path that EU leaders as yet have been unready to take ahead of their summit at the end of June.

"We're going to continue to make the case," said David Plouffe, a senior Obama adviser said in a television interview.

"There will be progress made over the next couple days, but no one should expect a firm resolution," he said.

Chinese President Hu Jintao in a newspaper interview over the weekend said G20 members should address the debt crisis in a "constructive and cooperative way, encourage and support efforts made by Europe to resolve it and send a signal of confidence to the market".

Japan backed that call.

"We (Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan and I) agreed to seek further efforts from euro zone, Germany in particular, as stability in Europe is indispensable," Finance Minister Jun Azumi said as he arrived in Mexico for the G20 summit.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick was far more forceful, calling it "an absolutely critical time" and warning Europe not to squander this opportunity for decisive action.

"We are waiting for Europe to tell us what it is going to do," said World Bank President Robert Zoellick.

"The danger we're creating is the danger of policymaking that is increasing uncertainty and making markets more nervous, which has a negative feedback loop," he said on Sunday at a business meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

Europe's debt crisis has underscored the need for a bigger war chest at the International Monetary Fund. Leaders are set to confirm they will double the IMF's firepower with an extra $430 billion in loans even though some emerging nations are frustrated with the slow pace of winning more power at the global lender.

ACTION PLAN

The G20 leaders are expected to adopt a Los Cabos Action Plan, pledging to promote economic growth and jobs, investing in infrastructure and promoting trade, while sticking to its pledges to bring down budget deficits,.

In a hint of flexibility on its austerity push, Germany indicated a readiness to give Athens more time to implement the tough economic reforms required under its 130 billion-euro European Union/IMF bailout. These terms were the central battleground issue in the Greek election campaign.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle left no doubt that Greece must stick to the terms of the bailout if it wants to stay in the euro currency, but he added: "I can imagine that we would talk about the time axes once again."

This would be welcome to the United States and other G20 countries, which have warned that cutting spending too quickly can set off a vicious cycle of recession, escalating deficits, social and political upheaval and spreading global risk.

Softening the EU's austerity drive also is a priority for new Socialist French President Francois Hollande, whose hand was strengthened on Sunday by a resounding leftist victory in parliamentary elections.

Even if the timetable is eased, Greece will still have to make budget cutbacks that so far have plunged the country into recession and pushed unemployment over 20 percent. It must first form a government, which should happen in coming days, before the EU or the IMF would have discussions.

European leaders and the IMF said they would work with Greece to restore the country to growth.

Business leaders from more than 400 companies meeting on the sidelines at Los Cabos urged the G20 to deliver results.

"Over the next few days we will see whether the world can come together or come apart," said World Economic Forum Managing Director Robert Greenhill.

(Reporting By Stella Dawson; Additional reporting Lesley Wroughton and Tetsushi Kajimoto; Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Jason Lange in Washington and Benjamin Kang in Beijing; Editing by William Schomberg and Padraic Cassidy)

Home prices in the world's second-largest economy have fallen month-on-month since October, after China tightened policy more than two years ago to take the steam out of sizzling home prices.

Still, Beijing reaffirmed hours after the data it would keep property tightening measures in place, concerned that inflationary pressures are still a problem even as the broader economy slows.

Prices have declined but the cumulative drop is still mild, analysts say, keeping home prices near record highs and out of reach for the majority of China's burgeoning middle class. If Beijing moves to loosen restrictions now, it may mean the economy is slowing faster than expected.

"Housing prices are stabilizing or approaching the bottom," He Yifeng, economist at Hongyuan Securities in Beijing. "But we still cannot see any signs of rebounding."

Average new home prices fell 0.1 percent in May from a month earlier, narrowing from April's fall of 0.3 percent, according to Reuters calculations based on home price data in 70 cities published by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

Only 40 cities saw new home prices fall in May from April, as compared with 43 in April, 46 in March and 52 - the most so far - in December.

The set of year-on-year data told a different story, showing the average new home prices dropped 1.5 percent in May. That marked the third straight month of decline, and compared with April's fall of 1.2 percent and March's dip of 0.7 percent.

A total of 54 cities suffered year-on-year home price declines in May, by as deep as 14.2 percent in Wenzhou, an eastern city seriously hit by private business failures in recent months due to external headwinds.

After the housing data, Chinese property shares .SSEP reversed earlier losses, while Chinese developers listed in Hong Kong jumped.

PANIC AGAIN

The People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party, said in an analytical report on Monday that many home buyers worry about a rebound in property prices, as China has relaxed monetary policies, which changed market sentiment and boosted property sales since March.

"It seems home prices and tightening policies have reached their bottom so quite a few home buyers are starting to panic again," it said.

This is reminiscent of 2009 when prices doubled in several months after Beijing rolled out a 4 trillion yuan ($628.43 billion) stimulus package, the newspaper said.

China has relaxed monetary and fiscal policies after a more than two-year long property tightening campaign cooled the country's red-hot property market, at the same time as the euro zone debt crisis hit global financial markets and put a brake on domestic growth.

The central bank cut interest rates on June 7, the first such move in more than three years, after it lowered banks' reserve requirement ratio three times since November.

"Although these measures are not aimed at salvaging the property market, they are a shot in the arm for the cash-strapped real estate market," the People's Daily added.

Premier Wen Jiabao's government and its ministries have reiterated no change in its tightening stance for the real estate sector, which affects more than 40 other industries.

The latest confirmation of that policy came on Monday, in a Xinhua report that cited the housing ministry.

An unnamed spokesman from the housing ministry was quoted as saying that "all localities must firmly implement various property tightening measures as required by the central government."

But the weakening economy, likely to grow at its slowest pace in more than three years this quarter, is fuelling expectations that Beijing will probably have to relax property curbs if external headwinds worsen.

Reinforcing such expectations are local governments' steps to make it easier for first-time home buyers, by relaxing policies marginally so as not to irritate Beijing while stimulating local housing transactions.

SALES PICK UP

The semi-official China Securities Journal reported on Monday that transactions of new and existing homes combined rose 46.5 percent in Beijing in the first half of June as compared with the same period last year, citing data from the local housing bureau website.

The newspaper also cited local consultancy Home Link as saying that 21 of the 76 new property projects that hit the market so far this year recorded a rise in transaction prices.

However, high inventories will cap any quick rebound in home prices in the near term, it cited Home Link analyst Chen Xue as saying.

Vanke 000002.SZ, China's largest developer by sales, said earlier this month it would take about 11 months to sell down unsold stocks in key cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

"I'm not worried about a home price rebound as long as the government keeps its tightening stance," Hui Jianqiang, head of research at the China Real Estate Association, told Reuters after the data.

(Reporting by Langi Chiang and Kevin Yao; Editing by Ken Wills and Jacqueline Wong)