LONDON: Gold fell to a five-week low on Friday, heading for its worst week in more than two months on prospects the United States would soon curb its stimulus and as fears of a US-led military attack on Syria receded.

Gold hit its weakest since August 8 at $1,304.56 earlier and is on track to record its biggest weekly drop since June 21 at 5.3 percent so far. It was quoted at $1,317.30 an ounce, down 0.2 by 1455 GMT. As technical support at 100- and 50-day moving averages has been broken, traders said $1,307 should now provide a floor, but a consistent fall through that level would trigger further losses to August's lows of $1,273.

US gold futures for December also touched their lowest since August 9 at $1,304.60 an ounce and stood at $1317.14, still down $13.20.

"Gold's drop at the beginning of the week was mostly due to the waning safe-haven buying after the diplomatic action in Syria," MKS SA Senior Vice President Bernard Sin said.

"But now it's all about the Fed tapering talks and expectations that the central bank will start, albeit slowly, as soon as this month."

The US Federal Reserve may announce a cut in its $85 billion monthly bond purchases at the end of its two-day meeting on Sept. 18.

Gold lost 19 percent this year after the Fed signaled it would start reining in nearly five years of quantitative easing that weighed the dollar down and encouraged investors to buy hard and non-interest rate bearing assets like gold.

Gold came under further pressure in earlier trading from a firmer dollar after a Japanese newspaper report that Lawrence Summers would soon be named to head the Federal Reserve.

But it cut some losses after weaker-than-expected US economic data indicating slow economic growth in the third quarter, suggested that the Fed could only slowly start its tapering, analysts said.

"If the Fed defers the decision on tapering we could well see gold take back some of the ground that has lost in the last few days," Mitsubishi analyst Jonathan Butler said.

Gold prices rallied above $1,430 an ounce to a three-and-a-half-month high in late August on safe-haven buying, as the United States and its allies looked set to launch military strikes on Syria.

But the metal's appeal has been dented by diplomatic efforts to place Syria's chemical weapons under international control, which may avert a US military strike.

Physical dealers reported buying interest from jewelers, which could help gold stay above the psychological level of $1,300.

In other precious metals, spot silver, which fell to a one-month low of $21.35 an ounce earlier, was trading up 0.6 percent at $21.83. It has lost around 10 percent this week, its biggest weekly loss since mid-April.

Spot platinum rose 0.4 percent to $1,432.49 an ounce, while spot palladium gained 1 percent at $696.47 an ounce.