LONDON (Reuters) - Copper spun wheels at largely unchanged levels on Thursday after three days of gains, as investors waited to see whether a European Union summit would succeed in tackling the region's debt crisis. Investors were wary of taking big positions as EU leaders were due to kick off a summit where Germany was expected to continue to refuse to back other countries' debts. Expectations were very low for a breakthrough at the EU summit, so a reasonable compromise might allow markets to move higher, said analyst Michael Widmer at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch in London. "If it is a credible solution with a clear long term path, the markets may not necessarily trade lower. They would go lower if you get something that is half-baked." Benchmark three month copper at the London Metal Exchange rose 0.07 percent to trade at $7,410 a tonne in official rings after earlier rising as high as $7,449.50 in Asian trade and dipping into the red in early European activity. Aluminum was also virtually flat, but other metals were firmer, still feeling the glow of stronger than expected U.S. economic data on Wednesday. "The markets are extremely short right now so it doesn't take a lot for prices to rally. Aluminum is at a record short position," Widmer said. Copper has slid about 13 percent so far this quarter and is down 4 percent this year, but the market has moved into backwardation, where nearby prices are higher than forward ones, indicating some tightness. Cash copper was at a premium to three months of up to $21 on Wednesday compared to a discount of $10 early last week. COPPER DRAWDOWNS IN CHINA In China, the most-active October copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gained 0.9 percent to close at 54,200 yuan ($8,500) per tonne. Copper is trapped in narrow ranges due to longer-term worry about the global economy and with demand from top consumer China still largely sluggish, said a Shanghai-based trader. Copper faces resistance at around $7,500 and will see support at $7,250 to $7,300, the trader said. But market players said they were seeing more copper drawdowns from Chinese bonded warehouses due to cheaper prices and an improved LME-Shanghai arbitrage, with LME three-month copper trading at a premium of 369 yuan on Thursday, well below the nearly 4,000 yuan in early May. In London, three month aluminum inched up by 50 cents to $1,872.5 a tonne in official rings, after Shanghai aluminum futures rebounded by 2 percent. The gains in China came after losses in previous days were regarded as overdone in reaction to news that China's top aluminum-producing province cut the electricity fees of smelters in a bid to revive output. In Australia, Rio Tinto said its Bell Bay aluminum smelter reached a new power supply deal to secure its long-term future. Galvanizing metal zinc jumped 2.5 percent in official trading to $1,800 a tonne, bouncing back after six days of losses that shaved 7.6 percent off the price. The move also came as LME data showed 113,925 tonnes of net inventory cancellations. LME zinc stocks have surged 21 percent this year to 995,425 tonnes. Tin gained 0.53 percent to $18,800 a tonne while battery material lead added 1.36 percent to $1,784 and nickel was untraded in the official ring, but was bid at $16,425, a rise of 1.08 percent. (Additional reporting by Carrie Ho in Shanghai; editing by William Hardy)

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