Gold off 3-week low, erratic ahead of Fed meeting

SINGAPORE, Dec 12 (Reuters) Gold bounced around ahead of Tuesday's Federal Open Market Committee meeting which will offer hints as to the dollar's outlook.

-- Spot gold rose as high as $630.30 an ounce and was at $629.00/629.75 an ounce by 0024 GMT, hardly changed from $629.20/630.70 late in New York.

-- Gold dropped to a three-week low of $622.60 an ounce on Monday on a firm dollar before rebounding as physical buyers reappeared at lower levels.

-- Benchmark gold futures on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange gained 14 yen per gram to 2,388 yen after rises in New York's COMEX market.

-- The euro was steady at $1.3244 .

-- The FOMC is widely expected to leave the federal funds rate unchanged at 5.25 percent, and given the note of caution on inflation recently from a number of Fed officials, markets expect the post-meeting statement to again echo this concern .

-- Platinum rose to $1,113/1,118 an ounce from $1,110/1,115 an ounce late in New York.

-- Silver was unchanged at $13.79/13.86 an ounce.

-- Palladium eased to $328/333 an ounce from $329/334.

REUTERS DKS PM0611