April 20 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures rose over 2 percent to touch their highest in six weeks on Friday, driven by mill fixations and a strong export sales report amid decreased hopes of rain in Texas, the major cotton growing region in the United States.

* ICE cotton contract for July expiry CTN8 settled up 1.91 cent, or 2.31 percent - highest one-day percentage gain since April 5, at 84.73 cents per lb.

* It traded within a range of 82.80 and 84.83 cents a lb, highest since March 9.

* The contract was up for a third consecutive week, recording its biggest weekly gain since the week of March 9.

* "We have an overwhelmingly large mill fixation position both domestic and international and an accelerated pace of sales that shows no sign of letting up," said Louis Barbera, partner and analyst at VLM Commodities LTD.

* "The mills are kicking the can down the road and rolling their long haul position into July."

* Traders are also watching rain forecasts over the weekend in Texas.

* "There was hope for this weekend of getting up to two inches of rain but over the last couple of days they've decreased that to a tenth to a quarter of an inch of rain ... it negates any positive effects it would have in a drought," Barbera added.

* Total futures market volume rose by 22,932 to 45,658 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 1,134 to 258,755 contracts in the previous session.

* Certificated cotton stocks CERT-COT-STX deliverable as of April 19 totaled 66,777 480-lb bales, down from 71,883 in the previous session.