NEW YORK, March 22 (Reuters) - U.S. cotton futures closed
up their daily trading limit on Tuesday as modest investor
buying was featured in otherwise subdued dealings, analysts
said.

The key May cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. rose
the 7-cent limit to end at $2.0596 per lb, with the session low
at $1.9743. The contract has been limit-up in three of its last
four sessions.

Volume of around 14,400 lots was over 50 percent below the
30-day norm, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.
Open interest, an indicator of investment exposure, stood
at 174,321 lots as of March 21, still near its lowest point
since late July 2010, data from ICE Futures U.S. showed.

Traders said most interest in cotton was from speculators
and many players were focused elsewhere.

'We're starting to think of the plantings number,' said
Keith Brown, president of commodity firm Keith Brown and Co in
Moultrie, Georgia.

He said the influence of geopolitical factors like the
fighting in Libya or the severe disasters which struck Japan
seem to be receding in the minds of market players as attention
begins to turn toward the plantings data.

The U.S. Agriculture Department will release its closely
watched annual potential plantings report on March 31 for crops
including cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat.

The USDA report will be its first survey of likely
plantings for major row crops in 2011. Despite the rally in
cotton to record highs, the fiber will compete for acreage
against similarly high-priced grains this year.

Analytical firm Informa Economics projected on Friday U.S.
farmers will plant 13.13 million acres to cotton, which would
be the most in five years.