* U.S. employment growth posts modest improvement * China official PMI up but slightly lower than expected (Recasts, updating detail, comment, prices; paragraphs 1-10) By Ron Bousso LONDON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Brent crude oil rose above $116 on Friday to reach a four-month high after a suicide bombing attack on the U.S. embassy in Ankara increased the focus on tension across the region. U.S. crude prices slipped though after a modest improvement in the U.S. jobs market was slightly below expectations. Brent headed for a third consecutive week of gains and was on track to post its biggest weekly gain in two months. U.S. crude was set to rise for an eighth straight week, matching a similar winning streak in July-August 2004. Brent futures for March rose $1.18 to a high of $116.73 a barrel, its highest since mid-September, before easing back to around $116.25 by 1500 GMT. U.S. crude, also known as West Texas Intermediate or WTI, was down 65 cents at $96.84. "Events in Syria and Turkey have increased supply concerns," Christopher Bellew, an oil broker at Jefferies Bache, said. A suicide bomber detonated an explosives charge outside the U.S. embassy in Ankara on Friday, killing himself and a security guard. The attack further increased tensions in the Middle East after Israel bombed targets in Syria earlier in the week. U.S. employers added 157,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the Labor Department said. The U.S. unemployment rate, however, edged up 0.1 percentage point to 7.9 percent. Economists polled by Reuters had expected employers to add 160,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to hold steady at 7.8 percent last month. "The employment data is somewhat disappointing, as it represents a pullback from the trend toward job growth approaching 200,000 per month," John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York, said. "Today's report is simply not good enough to support the thesis that a energy demand will be increasing as a result of improving employment levels," he said.

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