LONDON. Dec 11: The price of gold fell further this week after the Dutch central bank said it intends to sell 100 tonnes of gold in 2000 and a total of 300 tonnes in the next five years in line with a central bank agreement, reports AFP.

The gold spot price fell to 279.25 dollars an ounce on the London Bullion Market from 282.40 dollars.

The Dutch bank said that its sale was part of an agreed programme of auctions co-ordinated by 15 European central banks, which announced in September that overall they would not sell more than 2,000 tonnes of gold in the next five years.

Although the Dutch sale had been widely expected by dealers, it came as the latest blow to beleaguered market sentiment, which has suffered from the Bank of England's latest gold auction.

That sale of 25 tonnes of gold attracted far less demand

"than there had been at previous auctions.

However, the Dutch central bank said that once it had sold the gold it would remain a big holder, retaining more than 700 tonnes in its reserves.

Silver: Slipper. Silver prices followed gold lower again this week.

An ounce of silver on the London Bullion Market fell in price- by seven cents to 5.09 dollars an ounce.

Platinum and Palladium: • Glitter. The price of these two sister metals rose amid quiet trading conditions.

Platinum prices rose by five dollars to 438 dollars an ounce and palladium gained six dol-lars’to 407 dollars an ounce.

Base Metals: Slide. Nickel prices slid lower as industrial unrest at the Thompson complex in Manitoba, central Canada, .finally came to an end.

Unions and management

reached agreement Friday on a pay dispute that had hit production at the mine owned by Inco. the world's leading nickel producer, since September.

The company announce last month that it had been unable to meet a number of orders because of the. strike action.

The other base metals were constrained to a narrow trading range amid thin volumes.

On the London Metal Exchange (LME). three-month nickel prices fell by 40 dollars to 7.980 dollars per tonne.

Copper gained three dollars to 1.753 dollars per tonne after . market reserves fell by 10,650 tonnes to 764,700 tonnes.

Aluminium fell by 5.5 dollars lo f.553 dollars per tonne.

Zinc gained 14 dollars to 1.184 dollars per tonne.

Lead fell by 1.5 dollars to 491 dollars per tonne after a rise of 3.025 tonnes In LME stocks to 177,525 tonnes.

Tin lost 50 dollars to 5,750 dollars per tonne.