Spot prices remained steady during Tuesday trades supported by physical buying as investors continued to watch the progress in euro zone's debt problem and tensions in the Korean peninsula for trading cues.

Uncertainties about how the euro zone would stabilise its fiscal conditions continued to bother investors, even after an agreement over the weekend on a $115-billion bailout package for debt laden Ireland.

"We are in a period during which the market really doesn't know which direction things are heading. The European situation is still very uncertain. We had supposedly the solution of the Irish situation, but it didn't seem to please the markets too much," said Darren Heathcote, head of trading at Investec Australia.

Gold might benefit from safe-haven buying, if situations in Europe and Korea peninsula deteriorated. But a stronger dollar, another beneficiary of political and economic uncertainties, could weigh on gold prices.

Spot gold edged down 0.2 percent at $1,365.75 an ounce by 0317 GMT, moving in a tight range of less than $6.

U.S. gold futures were flat at $1,366.

Spot gold is biased to fall even through it remains technically neutral as it is rangebound between $1,350 and $1,375, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst.

The International Monetary Fund has slowed the rate of selling its gold by 40 percent in October from the previous month, as interest among central banks to own the metal increased as a hedge against economic uncertainty.

Precious metals prices at 0317 GMT

Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 1365.75 -2.34 -0.17 24.65
Spot Silver 27.15 0.03 +0.11 61.32
Spot Platinum 1637.75 -5.49 -0.33 11.64
Spot Palladium 688.72 -0.28 -0.04 69.84
TOCOM Gold 3704.00 11.00 +0.30 13.65 35226
TOCOM Platinum 4476.00 -22.00 -0.49 2.17 8012
TOCOM Silver 73.60 0.90 +1.24 42.36 1330
TOCOM Palladium 1870.00 37.00 +2.02 60.52 619
Euro/Dollar 1.3114
Dollar/Yen 84.15

TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.