LONDON - Copper fell on Thursday, with another jump in inventories underscoring weak demand as OECD consumption languishes and analysts see high prices deterring Chinese buying.

At 1547 GMT, copper for three-months delivery on the London Metal Exchange traded at $6 540 a ton from $6 570 on Wednesday. The red metal hit a low of $6 485 earlier.

Copper inventories, which have been rising since mid-July, climbed 5 775 tons to 379 825 tons and are at their highest level since early May.

"People are concerned that outside of China, in the developed world, that demand may not pick up as strongly as needed," said Max Layton, an analyst at Macquarie. "We don't doubt that the market is factoring some portion of the global rebound into the price and you do need the world to recover into next year to justify (these prices)."

"The fact that inventories are still rising despite very strong Chinese exports is suggesting that copper today is in surplus globally," he added.

Analysts said that this year copper would not retest 2009 highs above $6 700, but it could rise towards $7 000 in 2010.

The copper price has more than doubled this year, supported by hefty buying by China, the world's top consumer of the metal used in power and construction, and dollar weakness.

But analysts warn high prices are crimping China's buying.

"For sustained gains we'd need to see the Chinese come back," said Andrey Kryuchenkov, analyst at VTB Capital.

"We'll still stay range-bound because I don't see Chinese buying at the moment at these prices."