June 6 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures fell for the third straight session on Tuesday on expectations of increased crop production due to favorable weather conditions in top growing regions.

The most-active December cotton contract on ICE futures U.S. settled down 0.09 cent, or 0.12 percent, at 72.52 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 72.48 and 72.96 cents a lb.

"For now, we aren't going to see a weather scare," said Ron Lee, general manager at McCleskey Cotton in Bronwood, Georgia, in a note.

The government data on Monday showed 80 percent of cotton crops were harvested in the United States by the week ended June 4, up from 63 percent in the previous week. It rated 61 percent of the U.S. cotton crop in good to excellent condition, up from 47 percent year ago.

"Over the last month there has been pretty good weather and plantings in major countries has been progressing pretty well," said Gabriel Crivorot, analyst at Societe Generale in New York. "We have the USDA report coming out this Friday and analysts forecast a slightly higher production in the U.S. and globally."

In India, the world's biggest cotton producer, crucial monsoon rains are expected to reach 98 percent of the long-term average this year, the state-run weather office said on Tuesday, 2 percentage points higher than its previous forecast. "That will probably help the (Indian) crop in the long run too," Crivorot said.

Meanwhile, the July cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. touched near two-month low of 75.91 cents per lb. The contract settled 0.4 percent lower at 76.02 cents per lb.

* Total futures market volume rose by 787 to 29,590 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 2,744 to 237,936 contracts in the previous session.
* Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of June 5 totaled 440,044 480-lb bales, down from 441,870 in the previous session.

(Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft)