(Recasts, adds comment and London dateline)

By Pratima Desai

LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) - Copper prices fell to

one-week lows on Monday as worries about demand were reinforced

by weak economic data from top consumer China and high oil

prices.

Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange was

down 0.7% at $13,465 a metric ton at 0938 GMT from an earlier

low at $13,394.5 a ton. It has dropped 5% since hitting a

3-1/2-month high of $14,196.50 last week.

Traders said Chinese data had triggered a further unwinding

of long positions - bets on higher prices - held by funds and

traders.

China's industrial production data rose 4.1% in April from a

year earlier, compared with a 5.7% rise in March, missing a

Reuters poll forecast for 5.9% growth and marking the slowest

growth since July 2023.

Brent crude futures rose more than 1% to above $110 a

barrel, after a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates

came under attack and efforts to end the U.S.-Israeli war on

Iran appeared to have stalled.

"That fuelled further speculation that central banks will

need to keep tightening monetary policy, which could hurt metals

by slowing global growth and crimping demand from

manufacturers," Britannia Global Markets said in a note.

Elsewhere, focus is on aluminium due to disruptions to

output from the Middle East, which accounts for 9% of global

supplies.

"Aluminium is already in a clear deficit. The market was

expected to be short by around 1.5 million tons before the

latest Middle East disruption risk," analysts at Marex said.

"A Strait of Hormuz-related supply shock could remove around

3 million tons of aluminium supply this year, pushing the 2026

shortfall toward roughly 3.3 million tons."

Concerns about supplies created large backwardations, or

premiums for nearby aluminium contracts against contracts with

longer maturities.

Overall a softer dollar making metals cheaper for holders of

other currencies was supporting prices of industrial metals.

Three-month aluminium was up 0.4% at $3,576 a ton,

zinc rose 0.2% to $3,543, lead firmed 0.1% to

$1,979, tin gained 0.7% to $52,700 and nickel

climbed 0.5% to $18,590.