* Investors await Fed forward policy guidance

* Platinum touches lowest in more than 2 months

(Updates prices)

By Eric Onstad

LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - Gold touched its lowest in morethan two weeks on Monday as markets remained nervous ahead of aU.S. central bank meeting that could raise interest rates andsignal three more increases this year.

The price of gold has bounced after each of the fiveprevious U.S. rate hikes and is expected to again, said OleHansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank in Copenhagen.

"We have plenty of geopolitical risks and uncertainty, whichcontinue to provide support, and once the rate hike's out of theway the market will return its attention to whether Washingtonis moving further towards protectionism and trade wars, whichcould lead to lower growth," he said.

Spot gold XAU= fell for a fourth straight session and wasdown 0.02 percent at $1,312.70 an ounce at 1518 GMT, havingearlier dropped to $1,307.51, its lowest since March 1.

U.S. gold futures GCcv1 for April delivery were up 0.04percent at $1,312.80.

"We have a band of support at $1,300-$1,307 -- there's the100-day moving average coming in, there's the previous low and$1,300 is the big psychological level," Hansen said.

Saxo Bank retains a bullish stance but would turn neutral ifgold fell below $1,285, he added.

The two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetingbegins on Tuesday, with the U.S. central bank expected to raiseinterest rates for the first time this year on Wednesday.

With an increase of 25 basis points seen as a done deal, onekey focus is whether Fed policymakers forecast four rate hikesthis year instead of the three projected at the Decembermeeting. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1QV3GX

"I think the overall economic recovery is good enough forthe (U.S.) central bank to consider a faster pace ofnormalisation of monetary policies," said Mark To, head ofresearch at Hong Kong's Wing Fung Financial Group.

Gold is highly sensitive to rising U.S. interest rates,which reduce its appeal compared with interest-bearinginvestments.

Among other precious metals, silver XAG= shed 0.1 percentto $16.28 an ounce.

While speculators have pulled back from U.S. futures in bothgold and silver, investors in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) haveregarded the low prices as a buying opportunity, Commerzbanksaid.

"While silver ETFs registered inflows of roughly 84 tonnesin the past two days of trading, speculative financial investorshave expanded their net short positions to almost the recordhigh achieved two weeks ago," the German bank said in a note.

"In our opinion, market participants are positioned toopessimistically in silver, so we expect the silver price torecover."

Palladium XPD= dropped 0.6 percent to $988.47 whileplatinum XPT= was up 0.6 percent at $948.24 after touching itslowest since Jan. 3 at $936.50.

(Additional reporting by Eileen Soreng in BengaluruEditing by David Goodman) ((eric.onstad@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 7093; Twitter https://twitter.com/reutersEricO ; Reuters Messaging: eric.onstad.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))