* Weaker dollar triggers bargain-hunting after Tues drop

* Cotton underperforms commodities complex Tuesday

* Government shutdown could delay US cotton exports -analyst

NEW YORK, Oct 2 (Reuters) - New York cotton futures prices ended slightly higher on Wednesday as a fall in the U.S. dollar and gains in agricultural and industrial commodities rekindled buying interest in the fiber after the previous session's drop.

Market participants continued to monitor a partial U.S. government shutdown, which entered a second day with no end in sight.

The most-active December cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. settled up 0.27 cent, or 0.3 percent, at 86.87 cents a lb, with volume nearly 35 percent over its 30-day average, preliminary Reuters data showed.

INTL FCStone analyst Gary Raines cited the lower dollar and rises in the broader commodity complex as reasons for cotton's gains.

Cotton underperformed the broader commodity market, with the Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a gauge of commodities strength, up almost 1 percent on the day.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell below psychological support at 80 to around 79.9, having earlier hit its lowest level since February.

On Tuesday, the December contract fell 0.7 percent, ending a five-session winning streak, as worries over the U.S. government shutdown overshadowed fears about delays and damage to the U.S. crop from stormy weather.

The deadlock in Washington is expected to disrupt cotton quality-control inspections as contracted services to move cotton from gin mills to inspection sites will not be running. In addition, U.S. authorities will not issue phytosanitary certificates, which guarantee cotton is shipped free of pests and pathogens.

If a shutdown is prolonged, the disruptions, combined with delays in key statistical reports, could delay U.S. cotton exports, analysts said.

"Moving from summer into fall, this is the worst time in terms of getting production estimates for the shutdown to be occurring," said Sharon Johnson, a cotton specialist at KCG Futures in Atlanta. (Reporting by Marina Lopes and Frank Tang; Editing by Peter Galloway)