By Simon Kennedy
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stocks markets held in a tight range in early trading Thursday as the region's leaders gathered for a summit in Brussels to discuss the sovereign debt crisis. Among stocks in focus, shares of oil giant BP PLC (UK:BP. 468.05, -8.50, -1.78%) dropped 2.3% after the U.S. government filed a civil lawsuit against the firm and eight other companies over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,893, +10.50, +0.18%) rose 0.1% to 5,890.10, the French CAC 40 index (FR:PX1 3,887, +7.07, +0.18%) fell 0.1% to 3,876.96 and the German DAX 30 index (DX:DAX 7,027, +10.41, +0.15%) slipped 0.1% to 7,009.77.
