By Peter Starck

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European shares fell on Monday with banks such as Spain's Santander hit by ongoing worries about the health of the sector and with lower oil prices denting energy heavyweights Shell and Total.

Activity was subdued because of a holiday in Britain which meant that markets in London, Europe's top financial centre, were closed.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares lost 0.6 percent, closing at 1,169.17 points. It has fallen more than 22 percent this year compared with a 17 percent slide for the MSCI World index.

Analysts said European stocks might struggle in the near term as the global economic outlook remains uncertain.

"The markets will remain lacklustre," said Franz Wenzel, strategist at AXA Investment Managers in Paris. "People are nervous and hardly any risky money is at work," he added.

The International Monetary Fund has cut its forecasts for 2008 and 2009 world economic growth, a G20 finance official told Reuters on Monday.

That news, signalling weaker demand, hit shares in steel maker ArcelorMittal, down 2.2 percent, and engineering conglomerate Siemens, down 1.6 percent.

"At the moment there are hardly any positive impulses in sight for the stock market," German bank NordLB said in a strategy note.