Euro zone leaders reached agreement on a comprehensive package of measures to tackle the bloc's debt crisis after an EU summit that ran into the early hours of Thursday, spurring the euro to a seven-week high against the dollar.

Gold rose in tandem with other commodities and equities, with cash prices up half a percent to a one-month high of $1,728.11 an ounce, before easing to $1,722.69 by 0623 GMT, on course for its fifth straight session of gains.

US gold futures, which also hit a one-month high of $1,729.8, traded nearly flat at $1,724.20.