MELBOURNE, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Trading in the shares in Centro Properties Group (CNP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research), which owns 700 U.S. shopping malls, was halted on Friday pending an announcement, the Australian stock exchange said.

No further details were given.

Friday is the deadline for Centro to negotiate a refinancing deal with its creditors after it got into trouble when it borrowed heavily using short-term debt to finance long-term investments.

Centro said in December that it and its affiliates were struggling to refinance some A$3.9 billion ($3.5 billion) of debt. ($1=A$1.11) (Reporting by Victoria Thieberger)