In a statement following its policy-setting meeting, the Fed offered a moderately brighter economic outlook and left monetary policy on hold, but flagged risks to growth that appeared to leave open the door for further easing. "While we still expect that economic activity and labor market conditions will improve gradually over time, the pace of progress is likely to be frustratingly slow," Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said. "Moreover, there are significant downside risks to the economic outlook, most notably concerns about European fiscal and banking issues (that) have contributed to strains in global financial markets, which have likely had adverse effects on confidence and growth," Bernanke added. Some officials at the central bank have urged new steps to foster stronger growth. Charles Evans, president of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, dissented on Wednesday because he wanted the central bank to ease policy at this meeting. "While the statement did not announce further policy measures, the fact that it doesn't close the door on another round of quantitative easing is constructive to some degree for resources for commodities," said Peter Buchanan, commodities analyst and senior economist at CIBC in Toronto. London Metal Exchange (LME) benchmark copper climbed $155, or 2 percent, to close at $7,885 per tonne. In electronic trade, the price regained some footing back above $7,900. In New York, the key December COMEX contract settled up 7.85 cents at $3.5810 per lb, after dealing between $3.4775 and $3.6295. After hours, it held around the $3.58 level. Copper found early support from data showing a pickup in employment in the world's largest economy, which underscored the view the economy is on a path of slow growth. "The underlying fundamentals for copper are good; supply data is weak and demand from China is still robust," said Standard Chartered analyst Daniel Smith. "Things look pretty strong for copper for the year-end. Base metals will keep bouncing around but copper will do better than other metals because of the fundamentals," he added, underlining that feedback from customers indicated strong copper demand for the next couple of months. Stressing the supply tightness for the metal, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc said late Tuesday that production and processing rates at its strike-hit Grasberg mine in Indonesia had fallen below levels needed to meet fourth-quarter sales targets. The positive fundamental news helped to offset some of the worries surrounding the euro zone debt situation. "The rally overnight is just the market deciding that yesterday's story about Greece wasn't quite as bad as first feared because of the intricate politics this involves," said BNP Paribas analyst Stephen Briggs. The euro zone debt crisis was, however, still far from being resolved as Greece's Prime Minister George Papandreou won the backing of his cabinet on Wednesday to hold a referendum on a 130 billion euro bailout package, a decision that had sent markets into a tailspin in the previous session. Demand for refined metal in China, which accounted for almost 40 percent of copper demand last year, is expected to grow 6.4 percent in 2012, down from this year's 8.5 percent growth rate, a senior analyst at state-backed research firm Antaike said on Wednesday. Real consumption of refined copper may rise to 7.85 million tonnes in 2012 from 7.38 million tonnes expected in this year, Yang Changhua said. "China's demand may be somewhat weaker in 2012 but it will sustain global demand for commodities," said Caroline Bain, commodities analyst with Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). EIU expects China to begin relaxing monetary policy early next year. "China is believed to have run down stocks of base metals in 2011, which coupled with markedly lower global prices, could spark a rush of Chinese buying in early 2012," she said in a note. Also supporting copper prices was another draw from LME-registered stocks, which have fallen about 10 percent in the last month.