* Cotton shipments hit marketing-year high -USDA data
* Prices trade above key 10-day MA throughout session
* ICE stocks continue climb to highest in 2 months
NEW YORK, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Cotton futures climbed to a one-weak high on Thursday after a weekly U.S. government report showed export shipments hit a marketing-year high, raising expectations of tightening supplies in the United States, the world's top exporter.
The most-active March cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. rose as high as 86.69 cents a lb and settled up 0.79 cent, or 0.9 percent, at 86.31 cents a lb.
U.S. exporters sold 179,800 bales of cotton in the week ending January 30, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department, with increases reported for Turkey, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Taiwan.
Further, shipments of previously-booked sales hit a marketing year high of 358,600 bales, easing worries that high prices would prompt mills to cancel orders.
Even though new sales were down sharply from the previous week's high levels, the United States is on pace to beat a USDA forecast for exports in the 2013/14 crop year that began on Aug. 1, traders noted.
The recent strength of exports has raised expectations that the USDA will cut its forecast for 3 million 480-lb bales in U.S. inventories at the end of the 2013/14 crop year end-July.
"Exports have been real good the past few weeks ... The world has plenty of cotton, but U.S. supplies are tight," said Jobe Moss, a broker with MCM Inc. in Lubbock, Texas.
The USDA's monthly supply and demand outlook is due Monday.
While world inventories are expected to hit a record of 97.6 million bales by the end of July, U.S. output has fallen to a four-year low this season.
Traders said that short-covering and dealings ahead of Friday's March contract options expiry have supported prices throughout the week.
ICE stocks continued their climb to the highest levels since early December.
They reached 197,600 bales on Wednesday, up from 188,800 previously and 34,100 at the start of January, the most recent exchange data compiled by Reuters showed.
The March contract traded well above its 10-day moving average of 85.51 throughout the session, a bullish sign.
(Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Alden Bentley)
