By Nicholas Larkin and Wendy Pugh March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Gold, little changed in London today, may extend a weekly advance as demand strengthens on concern about European sovereign debt and as the dollar’s rally stalls. Greek labor unions shut down transportation today and state workers will walk off the job in protest as parliament prepares to pass a 4.8 billion-euro ($6.5 billion) austerity package. The dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, was little changed against the euro before a report that economists expect will show U.S. job losses accelerated in February. “Issues over Greek and European Union member debt continue to draw investment demand,” James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com in London, said in a report. Precious metals will likely “consolidate” recent gains as traders await today’s monthly U.S. employment figures, he said. Gold for immediate delivery added $2.30, or 0.2 percent, to $1,134.50 an ounce at 11:29 a.m. local time. The metal is up 1.5 percent this week. Bullion for April delivery was 0.2 percent higher at $1,134.90 on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex unit. The metal was little changed at $1,135 an ounce in the morning “fixing” in London, used by some mining companies to sell production, from $1,134.50 at yesterday’s afternoon fixing. Spot prices are 7.5 percent below a record $1,226.56 set Dec. 3. Meeting With Merkel Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou meets tonight in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, co-author of a Feb. 11 European pledge of “determined and coordinated action, if needed” to aid Greece. European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet yesterday said it would not be “appropriate” for the International Monetary Fund to aid Greece. European Union nations are working on a contingency rescue package for Greece to be funded by European governments, according to two people briefed yesterday in Berlin by an EU official. The official gave no sign that aid was imminent, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Gold fell the most in a week yesterday as the euro weakened after the ECB extended some economic-stimulus measures and left its benchmark interest rate at 1 percent. The metal gained 3.8 percent in the five days through March 3 and is heading for a third weekly gain in four weeks. “It’s been a very strong rally over that time,” said Peter McGuire, managing director of CWA Global Markets Pty in Sydney. “I think you are going to see more issues coming out of Europe with Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain.” The dollar has fallen from a nine-month high set March 2 against the euro. Bullion rose to a six-week high of $1,144.98 an ounce on March 3 as holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the largest gold- backed exchange-traded fund, gained to the highest level in seven weeks. The fund’s assets were unchanged at 1,115.51 metric tons yesterday, its Web site showed. Silver for immediate delivery rose 0.9 percent to $17.2675 an ounce and platinum lost 0.1 percent to $1,576.75 an ounce. Palladium gained as much as 1.4 percent to $466.50 an ounce, the highest price since Jan. 21, and was last at $463.50. To contact the reporters on this story: Wendy Pugh in Melbourne wpugh@bloomberg.net; Nicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net.

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