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Safe-haven gold receives support from Europeans

Safe-haven gold found support from European investors who saw looming war clouds over Iraq and tension in North Korea as good enough reasons to keep their grip on the precious metal on Friday.

Spot gold ended European trading at US$371.50 an ounce, up from US$369.75 last quoted in New York. Prices surged to US$388.50 earlier in the week, gold's highest since September 1996, to cap a 10 percent gain in the price of the metal this year.

Analysts said bullion had softened earlier this afternoon after US jobs data triggered an opening rally on Wall Street.

Stocks later fell as worries over war and corporate profits took the shine off the report, which showed that the US economy had created new jobs at its fastest rate in more than two years last month.

Gold's gains came ahead of a crucial visit by chief UN weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei to Baghdad this weekend. Both are due to address the Security Council on Feb. 14.

Meanwhile, the US said it was ready for any contingency after North Korea issued threats of pre-emptive attacks and suggested it was poised to restart an atomic reactor central to its suspected drive for nuclear arms.
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