EURO GOVT-Bunds little changed as all eyes on U.S. budget

LONDON Dec 27 (Reuters) - Bund futures opened little changed on Thursday, with investors focusing on U.S. lawmakers' last-ditch efforts to avoid large-scale fiscal tightening from automatically coming into force next year.

In a sign that there may be a way to break the deadlock in negotiations on the budget, Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner offered to consider any bill the Democrat-controlled Senate produced.

President Barack Obama returns to Washington on Thursday and investors expect the talks to avoid a fiscal crisis to resume.

At 0706 GMT, Bund futures were 5 ticks lower at 144.72.

"There is not much focus on Europe. We will just follow the lead of Treasuries," one trader said.