COFFEE

March arabica coffee was up 0.7 cents, or 0.7 percent, at $1.0410 per lb by 1424 GMT after touching a session high of $1.0440 per lb.

Dealers said the market was supported by light speculative buying after prices held up well in the face of recent attempts to break through key technical support levels.

"Specs are just playing around with the market," said one European dealer.

"But I don't think people see much more downside from here."

Volumes were light, though, with producers reluctant to sell their beans at current levels, dealers said.

March robusta coffee rose $6, or 0.4 percent, to $1,529 a tonne.

Prices had slipped to a three-week low of $1,507 a tonne on Wednesday, pressured by a pick-up in selling in top grower Vietnam ahead of the Tet holiday, dealers said.

Coffee shipments from Vietnam are expected to jump in January as traders rush to fulfil orders before next month's week-long Lunar New Year holiday.

SUGAR

March raw sugar was up 0.07 cents, or 0.5 percent, at 13.04 cents per lb.

Sales of hydrous ethanol in Brazil's centre-south cane region for the first two weeks of the year jumped 32 percent from the same period last year, signalling that a recent price decline in gasoline - its main competitor at the pump - may not have curbed the biofuel's appeal.

Market focus also remained on weather in Brazil after a recent bout of dryness in key cane areas.

"Rainfall in (centre-south) Brazil is back but continues below the norm for this time of year, calling into question the expected agricultural yields as we approach the new crop," said Sucden Financial senior trader Nick Penney.

March white sugar rose $1.20, or 0.3 percent, to $351.90 a tonne.

COCOA

May London cocoa rose 9 pounds, or 0.6 percent, to 1,646 pounds a tonne, boosted in thin volume by a softer British pound.

In the previous session, prices fell to their lowest since Dec. 12 under currency pressure and signs of ample supplies from top grower Ivory Coast.

May New York cocoa climbed $16, or 0.7 percent, to$2,295 a tonne.