* Gold futures hit $1,000/oz for 1st time since Feb

* MSCI Asia index ex Japan hits highest in a year

* Shanghai and Nikkei fluctuate between gains and losses

TOKYO, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Asian shares touched a one-year
high on Tuesday, while gold prices hit $1,000 an ounce for the
first time in six months in a sign of investor concerns about
the sustainability of the global economic recovery.

Asian shares shrugged off a lack of direction from
holidaying U.S. markets and most powered higher, including
laggards such as the Nikkei, which has yet to recover levels it
touched a year ago despite a rise of nearly 50 percent from its
March lows.

European and U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher
start even though financial spread betters expected main
European indices to slip back with profit-taking eating into
gains that took them near 11-month closing highs.

The MSCI index of Asian shares excluding Japan
rose to its highest in a year, gaining 0.9
percent.

Spot gold and U.S. gold futures both rose as
high as $1,000 an ounce, the strongest since February, with
both simmering economic worries and longer term inflation
concerns driving the gains. But both soon fell back.

Analysts warned volume was thin and that momentum could
soon wane, with a tendency of big Asian consumers to sell into
rising prices.

"I don't know if it will stay there for a particularly long
(period). My view is that by the end of the year the gold price
will be lower, probably down to around $950 an ounce," said
David Moore, a commodities strategist at Commonwealth Bank of
Australia.

Many investors are worried that stock market rallies have
got ahead of a global economic recovery that they fear will not
create jobs and will be hard to sustain once government
stimulus efforts fade.

But gains by shares in gold producers helped lift
Australian stocks towards their highest close in 11 months,
with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index rising 1.4 percent
to 4,517.4

24 Hour Base Metals