Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Gold dropped the most in more than a week as European leaders discussed plans for rescuing the euro, curbing demand for the metal as a haven.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy outlined the increased pace of their response to the financial crisis and said euro-area leaders may complete their new budget rulebook by Jan. 30, one month ahead of schedule.

“People want more information out of Europe,” David Meger, the director of metal trading at Vision Financial Markets in Chicago, said in a telephone interview.

Gold futures for February delivery declined 0.5 percent to settle at $1,608.10 an ounce at 1:47 p.m. on the Comex in New York. That’s the biggest loss since Dec. 29.

On charts used by some traders to forecast price movements, gold’s weekly moving-average convergence-divergence graph is indicating the metal probably will decline further, said Lance Roberts, Streettalk Advisors LLC’s chief executive officer. “The sell signal remains strong,” he said.

Hedge funds and other money managers cut bets on higher prices for a fourth straight week to 110,594 futures and options in the week ended Jan. 3, the lowest since January 2009, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show.

Silver futures for March delivery rose 0.3 percent to $28.782 an ounce in New York.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, palladium futures for March delivery advanced 0.6 percent to $617.85 an ounce, the first gain in four sessions. Platinum futures for April delivery rose 1.5 percent to $1,429.60 an ounce.

--With assistance from Nicholas Larkin in London. Editors: Millie Munshi, Steve Stroth

To contact the reporter on this story: Debarati Roy in New York at droy5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net