FOREX-Euro slips vs U.S. dollar as Greece woes persist

* Euro falls from Friday's 3-week highs, sterling down

* France says barriers to Greece deal remains

* NY manufacturing's employment index rises in March (Updates prices, adds quote, U.S. data, changes byline, dateline; previous LONDON)

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK, March 15 (Reuters) - The euro slid against the U.S. dollar on Monday, hampered by a lack of progress on a financial aid package for debt-strapped Greece.

Euro zone finance ministers are expected to agree on Monday on a way of providing Greece with financial aid to tackle its debts but France warned against expecting any hard figures and said barriers to a deal remained.

While the market focused on the ministers' meeting in Brussels, analysts said anyone hoping for a quick resolution to the Greek debt issue would be disappointed.

"The euro's struggles come from the realization there is nothing concrete about the bailout for Greece and so markets are disappointed that there seems to be no further progress on that front," said Matthew Strauss, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto.

In early New York trading, the euro was trading down 0.4 percent on the day at $1.3712, retreating from a three-week high just shy of $1.3800 hit on Friday after euro zone industrial orders data beat forecasts.

Data released on Monday, however, showed euro zone employment fell in the fourth quarter, highlighting the region's fragile economy.

Traders also said there were reports in the market of large option-related sell orders on the approach to $1.3800, limiting any upside momentum on the euro.

The ICE Futures' dollar index, meanwhile, reversed Friday's losses to trade firmer after weakness in Asian and European stocks prompted investors to shy away from riskier assets.

Ratings company Moody's said the credit ratings of the United States, UK, France, Germany and Spain were safe but risks to their top-notch status had grown.

A New York Federal Reserve survey released on Monday showed a manufacturing index in New York state fell by less than expected in March, with employment in the sector at its highest since October 2007. That added to some bullishness on the dollar.

The dollar traded up nearly 0.4 percent against a basket of currencies at 80.123. Against the yen, the greenback was up around 0.2 percent at 90.68 yen.

Data on Friday showed currency speculators trimmed bets in favor of the dollar for a second straight week and raised bets against the euro to a record high.

Sterling was the day's biggest mover, falling 0.8 percent against the dollar to $1.5058 after hitting session lows of $1.5019 on persistent worries about a weak UK economic outlook and on uncertainty ahead of a general election expected in May.

Many investors remained sidelined ahead of monetary policy meetings by the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan this week.

The Bank of Japan starts a two-day meeting on Tuesday at which, sources said, it is leaning towards easing monetary policy again.

In contrast, solid retail sales data offered the U.S. dollar support against the yen, heading into a week when the Fed's policy-setting committee meets on Tuesday. (Additional reporting by Neal Armstrong in London; Editing by James Dalgleish)