June 6 (Reuters) - Euro zone government bond yields

edged up on Thursday before a European Central Bank policy

meeting and after investors recently raised their bets on the

2024 easing path to two rate cuts and a 50% chance of a third

move.

Analysts said a rate cut this month was a done deal but

there was a lot of uncertainty about the outlook after June.

Germany's 10-year yield, the bloc's benchmark,

rose 2 basis points (bps) to 2.51%. It hit a 6-1/2 month high at

2.707% last Friday.

Money markets priced in 63 bps of ECB monetary easing in

2024 from less than 55 bps on Monday.

Germany's 2-year government bond yield, more

sensitive to policy rate expectations, was down 0.5 bps at

2.98%. It hit 3.125% on Friday, its highest since mid-November.

Italy's 10-year yield rose 1.5 bps to 3.82%.

The gap between Italian and German yields, a

gauge of the risk premium investors seek to hold bonds of the

euro area's most indebted countries, was at 129.5 bps.

The spread between U.S. and German 10-year yields

- a gauge of expectations for monetary policy

divergence between the Fed and the ECB - was at 177.9 bps from

around 195 bps late last week.