* China's procurement program seen supporting U.S. cotton

* ICE cotton futures to hold a range through end-2012-economist

NEW YORK Nov 2 (Reuters) - U.S. cotton futures trading on ICE Futures touched a five-week low before changing direction to settle up a shade on Friday, as the Chinese government's procurement price mechanism provided a lift.

The most-actively traded December cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. settled up 0.14 cent, or 0.2 percent, at 70.35 cents per lb. The market initially moved down to 69.66 cents per lb, the lowest for the spot contract since Sept. 28 as rising ICE certified stocks provided some weakness.

Exchange certified cotton stocks rose for the eighth straight day, inching up 161 bales to 11,764 on Nov. 1, a one-month high, ICE data showed.

World cotton stocks will hit a record 16.4 million tonnes at the end of this marketing year, the result of slow economic growth that will reduce consumer demand for textile products, an international farm group said on Thursday.

Total futures volume reached just over 19,000 lots, down roughly 20 percent from the 30-day average, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed.

Last year around this time, the Chinese government introduced a cotton procurement mechanism t hat stopped not only the plunge in Chinese prices but also temporarily prevented falling prices on ICE, said Gary Raines, chief economist for INTL FCStone.

"The same thing is effectively happening this year. China has this procurement price in place that is contributing to the price of cotton that the rest of the world has to pay," Raines said.

"That procurement price is working to keep ICE prices in the U.S. fairly range bound."

Raines expected the Chinese procurement program to help keep the benchmark cotton futures contract on ICE trading between 65 cents to 75 cents through to the end of 2012.