After hitting its lowest since early January on Friday, the safe-haven precious yellow metal gold edged a little on Monday, adding $3.39 an ounce to $1,581.69 by 0248 GMT.

Bargain hunters had helped prices to recover, but analysts see this as possibly short-lived as investors would maintain a cautionary stance.

"I think for as long as the crisis in Europe drags on, it's going to keep sentiment broadly in check. At the moment, gold has been painted with the risk brush. It's going to be very much a tracker of the equity markets," Reuters News quoted senior commodity strategist Nick Trevethan as saying to ANZ in Singapore.

"The range should be from just below $1,580, up towards $1,600. The market really needs to get back towards $1,600 or above in order to confirm we have bottomed," the analyst further pointed out.

The inconclusive Greek election which rendered parliament almost immobile over split sentiments on the 130-billion euro EU/IMF bailout will continue to keep investors slow on their buying tracks.

"We've seen physical buying interest. But people are still bearish about the market because of the strong dollar and worries that Greece won't be able to solve its problems," a Hong Kong-based dealer said in Reuters News.

"Investors are not so aggressive, and I think the jeweller sector is more important. Supply is a bit tight in the physical market."