LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - The London Metal Exchange

(LME) has approved the application of a British arm of U.S.

broker Clear Street for Category 1 membership, giving it access

to the LME's open-outcry trading floor, the LME said on

Wednesday.

Clear Street

joining

the LME floor trading takes the number of dealing members

on Europe's last open-outcry venue back to eight after Societe

Generale said in August it would leave the floor.

"The arrival of a new member of the calibre of Clear

Street demonstrates the LME's ability to provide a dynamic

marketplace for industrial metals and our place at the centre of

global metals trading," Matthew Chamberlain, LME chief

executive, said in a statement.

The LME, the world's oldest and largest market for

industrial metals, proposed closing the floor or ring trading

three years ago, to join other exchanges with only electronic

trading, but opposition from the physical market persuaded the

LME to row back on its plans.

Ring trading now operates on a hybrid basis. Open-outcry

trading is used for determining official prices used by physical

users as benchmarks for their contracts and an electronic system

for closing prices.