* Friday's gains not enough to prevent weekly decline

* Open interest falls to lowest level since December

* Speculators cut cotton net long stance for 3rd straight week-CFTC

NEW YORK, April 26 (Reuters) - ICE cotton rose on Friday, after finding technical support and as limited mill buying buoyed prices, though the gains were not enough to prevent fiber from registering a fourth straight weekly loss.

The most-active July cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. gained 1.02 cent, or 1.2 percent, to settle at 84.25 cents per pound.

A fall to technical support in the range of 82 cents to 82.50 cents earlier this week prompted buying, dealers said.

The day's gains came even as the rest of the Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a global commodities benchmark, closed lower.

"We're short-term oversold, and the cotton exports were pretty good," said Nick Gentile, senior partner of commodity trading consultancy Atlantic Capital Advisors.

U.S. weekly export data, which showed an increase from the previous week, was seen as solid by traders.

Prices also felt support from limited mill buying that came in on price dips, dealers said.

"They're buying on just a scale-down basis," said Gentile.

The most-active contract fell about 1 percent from last Friday's close, registering a fourth straight weekly loss, as investors booked profits following a first-quarter rally of 18 percent.

Speculators reduced their net long position in cotton contracts for the third straight week in the week to April 23, U.S. government data showed. They had boosted their bullish stance to a five-year high last month.

Open interest totaled 163,268 contracts on Thursday, after having fallen for each of the last ten sessions, ICE data showed. That was the lowest level since December.

Cotton's recent gains come after two years of losses as lower-priced, synthetic alternatives eroded demand for natural fiber, and global surpluses grew.

The world is projected to hold record inventories by the end of the crop year through July, though more than half of those are expected to become part of China's stocks and are considered unavailable to the global marketplace.

Beijing began building its reserves in 2011, paying above global prices to support local farmers. The stockpiling program is expected to continue this year.

The world's largest textile market is forecast to hold enough cotton in its inventories by the end of July to feed demand for fiber for more than a year. (Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Chris Reese)