Hopes that Europe would take bolder steps to address its long-running debt crisis, which has sharply dented the outlook for global commodity demand, lifted three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange by nearly 4 percent on Monday, its steepest rise since Oct. 27. By 0705 GMT, LME copper was down half a percent at $7,459 a tonne, after hitting a one-week top of $7,535 on Monday. All eyes are now on a meeting of euro zone finance ministers later in the day, at which they are expected to approve detailed rules for the region's 440 billion euro bailout fund that will clear the way for the facility to attract cash from private and public investors to its co-investment funds. "There was some optimism in markets yesterday but Europe's intractable problems are clearly difficult to combat and there are no quick fixes in sight," said Ong Yi Ling, analyst at Phillip Futures. "The European Financial Stability Facility may not have sufficient clout and we will still need greater involvement of the European Central Bank. Investors are being cautious ahead of the meeting." COPPER STOCKPILES FALL LME copper has fallen 22 percent this year and is on route for its first annual decline since 2008, when the global financial crisis tripped the world economy. In Shanghai, the most-active February copper contract gained 0.2 percent to close at 55,460 yuan a tonne. The euro zone's debt crisis has become the biggest threat to the global economy and a break-up of the region can no longer be ruled out, according to the OECD, which urged the European Central Bank to play a bigger role in defusing the crisis. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said the ECB should cut interest rates and step up its bond purchase programme to support confidence and economic activity in the euro zone, which has entered a mild recession. Ratings agency Moody's said it could downgrade the subordinated debt of 87 banks across 15 European Union nations on concerns that governments would be too cash-strapped to bail out holders of riskier bank debt in times of stress. In the United States, Fitch Ratings revised its outlook on the US credit rating to negative from stable after a special congressional committee last week failed to agree on at least $1.2 trillion in deficit-reduction measures. But in a sign copper demand remains firm in the face of troubled economies in Europe and the United States, LME copper stockpiles fell 1,950 tonnes to 392,775 tonnes on Monday, the lowest level since February. In China, copper inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 12 percent to 65,205 tonnes last week. Despite the weakness in European consumption, Phillip Futures' Ong expects China's copper demand to grow about 6-7 percent in 2012, albeit slower than forecast double-digit expansion this year, as the world's top copper consumer continues to invest in big-ticket infrastructure projects. But copper prices may be stuck in a tight range until the first quarter of 2012, said a Shanghai-based metals trader. "I'm quite neutral at the moment, not so bullish, a bit bearish. I don't see any big price movements until the first quarter," he said.