* LME copper falls further below $8,000, Shanghai slides * Stronger dollar also weighing, euro at one-month low * Coming Up: U.S. NAHB housing market index, 1400 GMT (Updates prices, adds quotes, details) By Carrie Ho SHANGHAI, April 16 (Reuters) - Copper fell further below $8,000 a tonne to hit fresh three-month lows on Monday, pressured by growing concern about slower demand from top consumer China, with Shanghai prices sliding more than 2 percent. A stronger dollar also weighed on the metal, as rising Spanish bond yields that revived worries over the debt-plagued euro zone, dragged down the euro to one-month lows. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell as low as $7,885.25 a tonne, a level not seen since Jan. 13. By 0720 GMT, it was down 1.2 percent at $7,893, adding to a slide of 2.8 percent on Friday, when the Chinese data was released. The data, which showed the Chinese economy growing an annual 8.1 percent in the first quarter, its weakest pace in nearly three years, fuelled a rash of selling, said Jonathan Barratt, chief executive of BarrattBulletin, a Sydney-based commodity research firm. "We have broken through some pretty heavy support levels in copper. When this happens, you'll see some funds selling," Barratt said. Copper was up nearly 15 percent this year when it hit a high of $8,765 in February, as investors banked on firm Chinese demand and tight global supplies. That year-to-date gain had thinned to less than 4 percent on Monday. LME's losses spread to Shanghai. The most-active July copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 2.3 percent to close at 56,720 yuan ($9,000) a tonne, not far off the session trough of 56,650 yuan, its weakest since Jan. 10. "LME copper's fall on Friday triggered a lot of stop-losses, so Shanghai copper's reaction today is within expectation. Sentiment has been dampened by a slew of worrying Chinese data, while the fall of the yuan today after the widening of its trading band against the dollar didn't cheer up investors here either," said a Shanghai trader. However the yuan's contribution to a cautious mood among Chinese investors may be temporary as the currency began trimming some losses later in the day. Economists also saw Beijing's new measure, which let the currency trade more freely against the dollar, as a positive, saying it suggests China is optimistic the economy is strong enough to withstand currency movements. Soaring bond yields in Spain added to the gloom. Spain's banks increased their reliance on cheap loans from the European Central Bank in March, borrowing almost double what they did in February. The dollar rose to its highest in a month versus the euro as Spain's soaring bond yields rekindled worries about the fragile state of the euro zone's economy, sending Asian shares lower too. Spain's government bond yields rose and the cost of insuring its debt hit an all-time high on Friday, as record borrowing by its banks from the European Central Bank highlighted fears about the country's finances before it tests market appetite for its debt on Thursday. Base metals prices at 0720 GMT Metal Last Change Pct Move YTD pct chg LME Cu 7893.00 -97.00 -1.21 3.86 SHFE CU FUT JUL2 56720 -1310 -2.26 1.96 LME Alum 2077.75 -2.25 -0.11 2.86 SHFE AL FUT JUL2 16050 -110 -0.68 1.33 HG COPPER MAY2 357.20 -5.50 -1.52 3.96 LME Zinc 1980.50 -3.50 -0.18 7.34 SHFE ZN FUT JUL2 15345 -220 -1.41 3.72 LME Nickel 18051.00 -254.00 -1.39 -3.52 LME Lead 2034.25 -30.75 -1.49 -0.04 SHFE PB FUT 15570 -150 -0.95 1.83 LME Tin 22095.00 -110.00 -0.50 15.08 LME/Shanghai arb 1539 Shanghai and COMEX contracts show most active months ^ LME 3-m copper in yuan, including 17 pct VAT, minus SHFE third month

Source