(Updates with afternoon trading)

By Amanda Cooper

LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) - Euro zone government bond

yields nudged higher on Monday, slightly extending last week's

selloff, as investors watched for developments in scheduled

talks between top U.S. and Chinese trade officials in London.

Traders will also have to assess remarks from a host of

European Central Bank officials speaking this week after the

central bank cut interest rates last week by 25 basis points to

2%, as expected, but signalled it may be closer to the end of

its current easing cycle than many had expected.

Benchmark 10-year Bund yields rose 2 basis

points to 2.585%, having risen 5.4 bps last week.

Two-year German yields were steady at 1.87%.

Schatz yields rose 9 bps last week, marking their largest weekly

increase since early March, when the German government announced

the biggest overhaul in spending in decades.

A host of ECB officials is scheduled to speak this week.

Policymaker Peter Kazimir said the central bank was nearly done

with interest rate cuts and should watch data over the summer to

determine whether more tweaks are necessary.

Traders are pricing in just one more rate cut for the rest

of this year from the ECB, down from roughly two a week ago.

"The ECB is in a comfortable position with rates at the

middle of the expected neutral range and inflation moving

towards ECB's target," Jefferies strategist Mohit Kumar said.

"We are still keeping our view of one more rate cut in

September as we expect a slowdown in the macro picture over

summer months."

Ten-year Italian yields were flat at 3.50%,

while 10-year French debt was yielding 3.25%, up 1

bp.

French bond markets were rattled a year ago when President

Emmanuel Macron called a snap election following European

parliamentary elections in which his party suffered dramatic

losses.

Longer-dated global bond yields have risen sharply this

year, as investors everywhere have grown more concerned about

debt levels in developed countries, in particular.

German 30-year bond yields, which on Monday were

up 3 bps at 3.05%, have risen over 40 bps this year. U.S.

30-year Treasuries are up nearly 20 bps at around 5%, nearing

their highest since 2007.

Investors are demanding higher premia to hold longer-term

bonds, but appetite for government debt has been robust this

year.

Barclays strategists noted late last week that euro area

banks have been avid buyers of general government debt this

year, to the tune of 173.6 billion euros ($198 billion) in the

first quarter of 2025 alone, with 85.5 billion euros coming in

the domestic markets.

"This was multiples higher than the demand seen in Q1 of the

previous five years," they said.

($1 = 0.8758 euros)