But end of week book-squaring was seen capping gold's upward struggle to vault $300 an ounce. Traders saw it stalling at the top end of its $293/$298 range.

Palladium's ascent seemed to be slowing, although business was brisk in New York and Asia as funds covered short positions.

It opened off Thursday's $300 London afternoon fix, but was still holding steady in early morning trading, dealers said on Friday.

GOLD - No big moves were expected in gold on Friday as dealers squared books for the end of the week.

"Gold will continue to trade in its $293/8 range and there is nothing to move it out of this right now. For the moment resistance at $300 is unassailable," one European dealer said.

Martin Squires of Rudolf Wolff said in a report, "The technical indicators are drifting sideways. Wolff anticipates further trade within the $295/6 range. In view of the recent failure to overcome resistance at $300 the downside is marginally favoured."

Gold prices have benefited from dollar weakness over the past 10 days and were likely to continue to do so to the end of the year, dealers said on Friday.

The launch of the Euro should also help gold, they added.

At 0800 GMT spot gold was quoted at $294.80/$295.20, up from Thursday's New York close.

In industry news Jiangxi Copper Co said it was raising the recovery rate of gold and silver from its copper smelting process to boost revenues. The Guixi smelter, China's largest copper smelter, has raised gold and silver output from last year's four tonnes of gold and 42 tonnes of silver, a company official said.

SILVER - Inched up in early trading on Friday, riding the coat tails of both gold and the platinum group metals.

At 0800 GMT spot silver was quoted at $4.81/4.84, up from the previous day's close.

PALLADIUM - Stole higher in Europe building on continued fund short covering overnight in New York and Asia.

But some dealers were surprised that the funds had not anticipated Russian supply problems in 1999.

Russia's major platinum group metals (PGM) producer Norilsk Nickel said Wednesday that bureaucratic delays in issuing 1999 export quotas may prevent it from exporting PGMs in the first quarter of next year.

Russia accounts for around 70 per cent of global palladium supply and around 20 per cent of platinum.

"It is the same old story. The Russians have had supply problems for the last two years. The funds could have anticipated this and covered some time ago," one trader said.

Another added, "Once this rally is over prices will move back down again."

Palladium was trading at $298/$303 at 0800 GMT. This was off Thursday's London PM fix of $300 but still up from Monday's opening of $272.00.

Platinum - Also supplied by Norilsk continued to benefit from supply side fears.

At 0800 GMT spot platinum was quoted at $352.00/354.00, up from the previous day's close.