Gold steadied in afternoon European trade after paring earlier gains, with the market watching movements in oil and silver and the UN atomic watchdog's meeting on Iran, dealers said.
The metal traded near February's 25-year high of $574.60 an ounce, while silver eased after hitting a 22-year peak on Friday and awaited news on a proposed exchange-traded fund (ETF) that had potential to attract fresh investment.
Spot gold rose to $568.15 before slipping back to $565.10/566.00 by 1530 GMT, compared with $564.90/565.80 late in New York on Friday, when it fell more than $3.
"Gold is probably going to remain in a range-bound trade today and should find good support above $565 against an environment of high oil prices," said Yingxi Yu, analyst at Barclays Capital.
"The IAEA report will be closely watched and has potential to help support prices further."
The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) board of governors met on Monday to weigh Iran's nuclear activity, opening the way to possible UN Security Council action over suspicions Iran wants to make atom bombs.
The agency will submit a report to the 35-nation meeting saying Iran has largely ignored a resolution demanding that it take steps to defuse a crisis of confidence in its nuclear programme.
Gold generally rises on geo-political tensions and is seen as a hedge against inflation.
Oil prices inched down on Monday after a four-day rally that had pushed prices to a new one-month high.
Analysts saw scope for further speculative gold buying that might lift prices in the coming days.
According to the latest data, speculators on New York's gold futures market were holding a net 16 million ounces of bullion, well below the record 22.76 million they held last October.
Dealers said any significant gains by silver might spark further buying of gold.
Spot silver was quoted at $10.24/10.27 an ounce, against $10.19/10.22 in New York on Friday, when speculation that US regulators would soon approve a silver-backed exchange-traded fund pushed up the price to new highs.
"Looking further forward we would not be surprised, though, if the price stabilises between $9.40 and $10.40 later since much of the backing potentially provided by the ETF seems to be already factored into the price," Wolfgang Wrzesniok-Rossbach, analyst at Germany's Heraeus, said.
Spot silver spiked to $10.31 an ounce on Friday, a level not seen in more than 22 years. In terms of the daily fix by the London Bullion Market Association, the market was at its highest in 19 years on Friday.
ETFs are designed to reflect closely the price of an underlying market or commodity, such as a stock index or gold, and they trade like listed stocks on any exchange.
Barclay's Global Investors International filed for iShares Silver Trust in June.
"We suspect that technical buying of gold and silver on COMEX (New York) will be triggered by a positive announcement of the silver ETF," John Reade, precious metals analyst at UBS Investment Bank, said in a note.
Platinum fell to $1,050/1,054 an ounce from $1,057/1,061 in New York on Friday, while palladium was flat at $300/304.
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