Gold advanced 1.5 percent to a 25-year high on Monday and silver spiked 4 percent to a 23-year peak as investors raced to get in on the returns from the sizzling bull run in commodities.
In London, spot gold fell short of the $600 barrier but benchmark New York gold futures ended just above the psychological level for the third straight session.
Platinum soared to a record high and palladium rose 3 percent, supported by firm oil prices, a drop in the dollar and soaring base metals prices, analysts said.
"The momentum is sufficient to push gold through $600 and certainly up to the $620-$625 area. It's the continuation of investor demand and these investors don't want to give up," said Peter Hillyard, head of metals sales at ANZ Investment Bank.
"Potentially this market can go as high as you like and I don't believe this is a short-term play. The market is just tracking higher and we are in a new paradigm of prices."
In bullion trade, gold climbed to $598.20 an ounce, the highest since January 1981. Its last price was $598.80/599.60, up from $588.00/588.90 in New York on Friday.
At the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, June gold advanced $9.10 to $601.80 an ounce.
UBS Investment bank lifted its gold price forecasts to $610 a month ahead and to $630 in three months, while a Goldman Sachs JBW report raised its estimate for 2006 to $574 from $538.
The metal has risen 16 percent this year and more than 40 percent in the past 12 months. In euro terms, gold jumped to a record high of 493.34 euros on Monday, while it rose to 342.52 sterling, the highest in two decades.
"In the current situation, we would not jump on the bandwagon, but it would be equally wrong to ignore the fact that gold has a huge number of inclined followers, who are possessed to bring the metal closer and closer to the all-time high," said Wolfgang Wrzesniok-Rossbach, analyst at Germany's Heraeus. Gold had shot up to a record high of $850 in January 1980.
Investors have turned to the booming commodities markets for alternatives to lagging equity, bond and currency markets.
In the past 12 months, the Standard and Poor's 500 index, an indicator of US equity performance, rose about 10 percent, while the Dow Jones industrial average gained 7 percent. The dollar against the euro was up by 6 percent and oil increased by 30 percent.
Tensions in the Middle East, uncertainty about the dollar's outlook, worries on firm oil and speculation that central banks would diversify into metals have also boosted gold's appeal.
An influential Chinese government economist said the country should push yuan reforms, let firms hold more foreign currency and raise gold reserves to help slow the rise in foreign exchange reserves. But Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer said the bank sold 161 tonnes of gold in 2005, but declined to comment on the pace at which it would sell gold in 2006.
Silver jumped to $12.50 an ounce, the highest since August 1983, and was at $12.68/12.71 in late New York trading, against $12.06/12.09 on Friday.
May delivery silver jumped 49 cents to end at $12.56 an ounce, after trading from $12.05 to $12.61, which marked the highest for futures since August 1983.
Platinum rose as high as $1,095 an ounce before falling to $1,087/1,091, still up versus $1,065/1,070 in New York. NYMEX July platinum rose $28.90 to $1,105.90 an ounce, after futures hit a new all-time high of $1,108.
Palladium climbed to $354/360 an ounce from $347/351. June palladium gained $6.70 to $359.85 an ounce. Its early peak at $364 marked its highest since September 2002.
The world's third biggest platinum producer Lonmin Plc shut down its biggest furnace after a leak was detected, but it gave no indication on Monday about any impact on production.