* Equities rise on hopes of U.S. debt limit deal * Chinese industrial players tend to buy copper below $6,900 * Coming Up: Indian industrial output at 1200 GMT By Silvia Antonioli and Melanie Burton LONDON/SINGAPORE, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Copper edged up on Friday as hopes of a resolution of the U.S. fiscal deadlock boosted riskier assets, but it was still on track for its biggest weekly loss in a month. Worries over a political crisis that shuttered much of the U.S. government and pushed it dangerously close to debt default pressured the metal earlier in the week and pulled it towards the lower end of its two-month $7,000-$7,500 range. Signals that President Barack Obama and Republican leaders appeared ready to resolve the fiscal impasse after meeting at the White House on Thursday helped U.S. stock indexes post their strongest rise in more than nine months. Industrial metals and other assets perceived as riskier also benefited from the signs of progress in negotiations to raise the U.S. debt limit. Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange edged up 0.3 percent to $7,164 a tonne by 1034 GMT, after 0.6 percent gains in the previous session. On Thursday the price had slipped at one point to $7,081 a tonne, the lowest since Sept. 18, and it is now set to chalk up a 1.5 percent weekly loss, the largest since mid-September. "There hopes of a deal in the U.S. helped base metals a bit after a sell-off on Thursday but I am not convinced this rebound will last too long because a deal has not been achieved yet and it doesn't help too much to diminish the uncertainty," T-Commodity consultant Gianclaudio Torlizzi said. "However I don't think copper will go much below $6,900 because below that level Chinese industrial players start to buy." CHINESE GROWTH Metals demand continues to be fanned by growth in top consumer China where premiums for metal in bonded zones have climbed $5 to $175-$205 this week, according to China price provider Shmet. China's economic growth should exceed 7.5 percent this year, deputy central bank governor Yi Gang was quoted by Xinhua as saying, the latest expression of confidence from Beijing that the world's No. 2 economy is steadying. Copper prices are closely linked to growth in China, which consumes about 40 percent of the world's supply. Tin buyers are becoming increasingly nervous about securing enough of the metal after new Indonesian trading rules cut shipments by the world's biggest exporter nearly 90 percent last month, although at LME week in London, the consensus was that Indonesia would give some ground to allow exports to flow.

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