* Optimism rising on euro zone efforts, Italy measures * China services PMI falls; hopes for easier monetary policy * Coming Up: U.S. ISM non-manufacturing PMI; 1500 GMT By Maytaal Angel LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Copper was steady on Monday, consolidating last week's strong gains with markets nervous ahead of a key summit in Europe this week but still hopefull that measures will be taken to combat the region's debt crisis. Also underpinning metals was news that Italy has unveiled a 30-billion euro austerity package, and the expectation that Ireland will do the same in a new budget to be announced later in the day. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was flat at $7,895 a tonne by 1015 GMT, after jumping around 9 percent last week on a surprise move by major global central banks to inject cheaper liquidity into European banks. The move helped copper outperform other base metals as the bellwhether metal - used by speculators to express a view on global growth - gained from hopes that a solution to the debt crisis will bolster the global economy. "There's a lot of event risk to come this week in terms of various (euro zone) meetings, you should expect metals to consolidate a bit after last week's big rally," said Credit Suisse analyst Tom Kendall. "Technically the picture looks better, aluminium and copper have formed a decent base but there's nothing to suggest that we are seeing anything fundamental to build on last week's rally," he added. Data out earlier showed the service sector in top metals consumer China shrank in November, mirroring similar weakness seen last week in data on the country's key manufacturing sector. The numbers were a mixed bag for market sentiment, however, as they reinforced expectations that Beijing could ease monetary policy further, which could be positive for metals prices going forward. Also, copper has been moving out of mostly Asian-based LME warehouses since October, while stocks in Asian bonded warehouses fell 11.6 percent last week. This signals good Asian demand that could only be aided by easier monetary policy. EURO ZONE IN FOCUS But the euro zone debt crisis is for now trumping all else, with metals markets still holding their breath ahead of a European summit on Friday, dubbed by the popular press as a last chance to save the euro. On Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel meet to outline joint proposals for more coercive budget discipline in the euro zone, which they want all 27 EU leaders to approve at Friday's summit. The European Central Bank has already signaled it is ready to act more aggressively if political leaders agree on tighter budget controls at the summit. "The market may well hope that policy makers will be able to get their act together. However, the enormity of the task ahead leaves a lot of room for disappointment and as such we would, for the moment, view any rallies as a counter trend moves," said BaseMetals.com analyst William Adams in a note. The Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), out earlier, showed the escalating sovereign debt crisis has already pushed the euro zone economy into a contraction that could be far worse than economists had expected. Against that, however, markets are factoring in better data from the world's biggest economy, the U.S., where unemployment dropped to a 2-1/2 year low in November and manufacturing rose to its highest since June. In other metals traded, soldering metal tin was flat at $19,950 a tonne while zinc, used in galvanizing fell 0.78 percent to $2,036 from $2,052. Battery material lead rose 0.24 percent to $2,105, aluminium fell 0.94 percent to $2,110 while stainless-steel ingredient nickel rose 1.32 percent to $17,975 from $17,740. Metal Prices at 1101 GMT Comex copper in cents/lb, LME prices in $/T and SHFE prices in yuan/T Metal Last Change Pct Move End 2009 Ytd Pct move COMEX Cu 357.80 0.05 +0.01 334.65 6.92 LME Alum 2140.00 10.00 +0.47 2230.00 -4.04 LME Cu 7910.00 15.00 +0.19 7375.00 7.25 LME Lead 2105.00 0.00 +0.00 2432.00 -13.45 LME Nickel 17050.00 -690.00 -3.89 18525.00 -7.96 LME Tin 19995.00 45.00 +0.23 16950.00 17.96 LME Zinc 2045.00 -7.00 -0.34 2560.00 -20.12 SHFE Alu 16220.00 -35.00 -0.22 17160.00 -5.48 SHFE Cu* 57960.00 -100.00 -0.17 59900.00 -3.24 SHFE Zin 15715.00 -80.00 -0.51 21195.00 -25.86 ** Benchmark month for COMEX copper * 3rd contract month for SHFE AL, CU and ZN SHFE ZN began trading on 26/3/07

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