* Positive debt news, Wall Street vies with soft China data * Copper rallies, shrugs off 21 pct import decline * Arbitrages remain wide in copper and zinc By Nick Trevethan SINGAPORE, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Copper rallied in London and Shanghai on Wednesday, shrugging off lower-than-expected Chinese copper imports for January, and focusing on easing sovereign debt worries and gains in equity markets. China's January imports of unwrought copper and semi-finished copper products fell 21 percent on the month, to 292,096 tonnes, data showed on Wednesday, much lower than the 409,090-454,545 tonnes traders had estimated. [ID:nTOE61805O] For a graphic of Chinese copper imports, click: here Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 rose $60 to $6,650 a tonne by 0712 GMT, having earlier rallied as high as $6,673.50 on easing worries about European sovereign debt that sent the dollar lower. Benchmark third-month Shanghai copper SCFc3 ended the day up 2.7 percent at 54,660 yuan. "The feeling is that there might be less copper around than people had previously expected. The chances are we might also Shanghai weekly stocks fall. That's helping lift the market over there and drag up LME too," a trader in Hong Kong said. The arbitrage between Shanghai and LME copper stood around 1,500 yuan while the gap between zinc markets was about 800 yuan, both of which should encourage imports. For a graphic on arbitrages, click: here Confidence was revived on Tuesday with news of a dose of German support for Greece and a decision in principle to come to the aid of the debt-laden Mediterranean nation. But a spokesman for the German government denied reports that the euro zone has made a decision to help debt-stricken Greece as "unfounded". [ID:nSGE61801C] Chinese markets will close for the whole of next week, and other Asian markets will be shut for part of the Lunar Year. "We have closed a lot of risk down ahead of the new year. It's no longer a case of what happens in metals, these markets are about currencies," a trader in Shanghai said. "Things tend to look solid during Chinese trading hours but get very volatile later. That makes me think currency plays, so even though from a fundamental perspective copper at these prices is a buy, it's too dangerous to call direction for next week." Base metals prices at 0712 GMT Metal Last Change Pct Move End 2009 YTD pct chg LME Cu 6650.00 60.00 +0.91 7375.00 -9.83 SHFE Cu* 54660.00 1460.00 +2.74 59900.00 -8.75 LME Alum 2058.75 2.75 +0.13 2230.00 -7.68 SHFE Alum* 16620.00 155.00 +0.94 17160.00 -3.15 COMEX Cu** 298.35 7.40 +2.54 332.75 -10.34 LME Zinc 2113.00 9.00 +0.43 2560.00 -17.46 SHFE Zinc 17685.00 375.00 +2.17 21195.00 -16.56 LME Nickel 17702.00 152.00 +0.87 18525.00 -4.44 LME Lead 2053.00 20.50 +1.01 2432.00 -15.58 LME Tin 15600.00 100.00 +0.65 16950.00 -7.96 LME/Shanghai arb^ -1538 Dollar/yuan 6.8276 \ 6.8286 ** 1st contract month for COMEX copper * 3rd contact month for SHFE aluminium, copper and zinc ^ LME 3-m copper in yuan, including 17 pct VAT, minus SHFE third month (Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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