Gold edged up near last week's record high on Monday but the dollar's rebound as well as worries about falling jewelry demand in main consumer India were seen likely to limit gains. Gold gained nearly 5 percent last week as dollar weakness pushed gold to a series of record highs. Bullion, which attracts safe-haven buying in times of uncertainties, had its best weekly performance in nearly half a year. Spot gold was quoted at $1,049.80 an ounce at 0428 GMT, up $1.55 from New York's notional close and within striking distance of a lifetime high of $1,061.20 an ounce struck last Thursday. Spot gold is up almost 20 percent so far this year. "The dollar is still the key factor here and should it start to show signs of a bounce, then gold could face a bit of pressure. But that's not the case for now," said Adrian Koh, analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore. "Gold is sort of pausing after the strong rally last week and there's really no clear direction yet. I guess sellers are on the sidelines at the moment, still waiting for a clearer signal and they don't want to be caught out when gold starts to rally again." The dollar, which was under relentless pressure last week, held above recent 14-month lows against a basket of currencies .DXY on Monday as dealers traders cut some of their short dollar positions on prospects that U.S. interest rates will move up earlier than expected. U.S. gold futures for December delivery added $2.60 an ounce to $1,051.20 on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, hovering near last week's record around $1,062 an ounce. Noncommercial net longs in COMEX gold futures rose to an all-time high 239,668 lots in the week ended October 9, up 3.6 percent from the previous week, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed. While gold's overall trend was bullish, there were signs that demand from the jewelry sector, which accounts for more than half of global gold consumption, had fallen due to high prices. Trading was slow in Asia on Monday, with Japanese speculators away for a holiday. "We've already seen Indian gold imports falling quite strongly in the second quarter this year when prices started to soar," Tony Parry, a senior resource analyst at Resource Capital Research, told a gold mining conference in Perth on Monday. "The Indian and Chinese markets are very price sensitive and the current volatility in gold prices will encourage them to take a wait-and-see attitude," he said. In India, which is in the middle of the main gold-buying festival season, traders stayed away from taking fresh positions on Friday, seeking a fall in prices. India's gold imports in September provisionally fell 30 percent, the smallest year-on-year decline in five months.

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