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SINGAPORE, Aug 10 (Reuters) Oil edged back up on Thursday, within sight of record highs after a big draw in fuel stocks in the United States plus the risk of a prolonged outage in Alaska.

London Brent crude gained 20 cents to $77.48 a barrel by 0705 GMT, after falling 27 cents on Wednesday, just over $1 below their record-high of $78.65 a barrel on Tuesday.

U.S. light, sweet crude oil rose 11 cents to $76.46 a barrel. It traded as high as $77.40 earlier on Wednesday, $1 below its record in July.

''I was surprised that it went down so much because the U.S.

inventory data was quite bullish... Gasoline demand is holding up very well in the face of record-high oil levels,'' Tony Nunan, assistant manager of the risk management at Mitsubishi Corp., said, referring to the dip in prices earlier in the day.

Data on Wednesday showed an unexpectedly deep 3.2 million-barrel draw in gasoline inventories as demand stayed firm and imports ebbed, while crude supplies fell 1.1 million barrels against forecasts for an 800,000 barrel-decline.S] Nunan also pointed to the 200,000-barrel drop in distillates stocks to 132.4 million barrels, contrary to analysts' predictions for a 700,000-barrel seasonal increase.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) data does not include the partial closure of BP's Prudhoe Bay oilfield in Alaska, the biggest in the U.S., accounting for 8 percent of total output.

BP began shutting down the field on Sunday and the U.S.

government said full output might not resume until early next year.

BP has closed in about half of the 400,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Prudhoe Bay production after finding a corroded pipeline, and will make a decision on Friday whether to shut the western half of the development, where corrosion was less severe.

Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski has urged a quick resumption of production and suggested that BP misled the state with satisfactory maintenance reports. He launched an investigation into the oil giant's handling of its pipeline corrosion.

BP has been scrambling to move oil from across the world to make up for the lost output, but oil majors have not requested additional crude from Saudi Arabia, industry sources say.

MIDDLE EAST VIOLENCE Oil has soared 25 percent this year on political tensions that traders fear could affect oil supply, including the war between Israel and Hizbollah, which continued to show conflicting signals over whether the violence is escalating or easing.

Israeli troops seized the town of Marjayoun and Qlaiah in south Lebanon on Thursday, witnesses said, even though Israel says it has put off plans for a broader offensive against Hizbollah to give a chance for U.S.-led efforts to form a peacekeeping force.

Hizbollah said it had destroyed seven Israeli tanks, killing or wounding their crews, in fierce fighting in the area, but there was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.

Diplomats are still working on a U.N. resolution aimed at ending the war but no Security Council vote seems imminent as the U.S. and France differ on when an international force, expected to be led by France, should move in and when Israel should withdraw.

The market was kept on edge after Britain raised its security threat level to ''critical'' on Thursday, which means it expects an attack imminently, after police said they had foiled a plot to blow up aircraft.

On the demand side, China's July crude imports dropped almost 4 percent from a year earlier to the lowest daily rate in 11 months, customs data showed, as refinery maintenance and an apparent first-half stockbuild limited purchases.

But the data showed refined fuel imports in July were near their highest so far this year, pointing to firm fuel demand from the world's second-largest consumer.

REUTERS SKU RS1333