(Updates for European session trading)

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Treasury yields slip from more than two-week high

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Zelenskiy flies to Washington on Monday to meet Trump

By Ishaan Arora

Aug 18 (Reuters) -

Gold prices eked out gains on Monday, helped by lower U.S.

Treasury yields, while market players awaited

U.S. President Donald Trump

's

meeting

with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European

leaders later in the day.

Spot gold gained 0.4% to $3,348.28 per ounce, as

of 0840 GMT on Monday, after hitting its lowest level since

August 1. U.S. gold futures for December delivery rose

0.3% to $3,393.40.

"The firm tone to gold prices has returned today with

the market nudging the $3,350 level (as) the combination of soft

yields and a weaker dollar would for sure create a tailwind for

gold," said independent analyst Ross Norman.

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields fell

from more than two-week highs.

On the geopolitical front, European leaders are set to

join Zelenskiy for

talks with Trump

later on Monday to discuss how to approach a possible deal

to end the

war

between Russia and Ukraine.

Russia would relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine and

Kyiv would cede swathes of its eastern land which Moscow has

been unable to capture, under peace proposals discussed by

Russia's Vladimir Putin and Trump at their Alaska summit on

Friday, sources briefed on Moscow's thinking said.

"Front-running the geopolitical news would be unwise

just now given that almost any outcome is conceivable. If there

was a sense that tensions over Ukraine were easing, then we

might expect some modest softness in gold prices," Norman added.

Investors are also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's

annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for more cues on Fed's

interest rate path.

Economists polled by Reuters largely expect the Fed to

announce a rate cut in September, its first this year, with a

possible second cut by year-end.

Non-yielding bullion, considered a safe-haven asset during

periods of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, tends to

perform well in a low-interest-rate environment.

Elsewhere, spot silver was up 0.2% at $38.08 per

ounce, platinum was steady at $1,335.06 and palladium

was up 0.6% at $1,118.92.