* Cocoa rebounds after three days of losses
* Fierce fighting rocks Ivorian capital
* Limited availability underpins coffee markets (Adds updates on prices and price table, recasts and changes dateline)
By Rene Pastor and David Brough
NEW YORK/LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) - Cocoa prices climbed on Friday as oversold bean futures staged a rebound while fighting spread between forces loyal to presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara and incumbent Laurent Gbagbo in top producer Ivory Coast.
Bitter fighting spread across the Ivorian capital of Abidjan as forces loyal to Gbagbo fended off attacks by those seeking to install Ouattara.
New York's May cocoa futures rose $59 to end at $3,011 per tonne. The market had lost almost 10 percent in value the preceding three days as the prospect of Ouattara ousting Gbagbo increased, raising the prospect that cocoa will begin flowing after being stalled by the power struggle there.
The unwinding of market long positions built up by fear of cocoa supply disruption could be seen as open interest in U.S. cocoa hit a three-year high at 168,846 lots.
The July cocoa contract on London's Liffe market rose 32 pounds to end at 1,947 pounds a tonne.
"It's a wait-and-see situation," said Keith Flury, soft commodities analyst with Rabobank in London. "We've seen a lot of liquidation already. People in the market are now consolidating."
"The market tipped so far to the sell side," said Sterling Smith, an analyst for brokers Country Hedging Inc. in St. Paul, Minnesota. "It's overdone. We added a few shorts on the way down."
Market players reacted cautiously to news that Nasdaq OMX and IntercontinentalExchange unveiled a rival bid to buy NYSE Euronext for about $11.3 billion in cash and stock, a 19 percent premium to the offer made by German competitor Deutsche Boerse.
COFFEE DOWN, SUGAR HIGHER
Coffee futures stumbled on late investor liquidation, with robustas appearing to hit automatic sell order stops on the way down, dealers said.
New York's May arabica coffee futures lost 4.15 cents to trade at $2.60 per lb. London's May robusta coffee contract fell $107 to end at $2,421 a tonne.
Sugar futures moved higher, buoyed in part by short-covering and trade buying in the market.
"We expect the ranges to be maintained until further fundamental news emerges," said Nick Penney of brokerage Sucden Financial.
The May raw sugar futures rose 0.45 cent to trade at 27.56 cents per lb. London's May white sugar contract added $1.50 to finish at $713.20 per tonne. * Prices as of 1645 GMT Product Last Change Pct Move End 2009 Ytd Pct ICE sugar 27.59 0.48 +1.77 26.95 2.37 ICE coffee 262.75 -4.00 -1.50 137.60 90.95 ICE cocoa 3020.00 54.00 +1.82 3310.00 -8.76 Liffe sugar 712.60 0.90 +0.13 710.20 0.34 Liffe coffee 2337.00 -81.00 -3.35 1332.00 75.45 Liffe cocoa 1950.00 34.00 +1.77 2271.00 -14.13 CRB index 360.32 0.89 +0.25 283.38 27.15 Crude oil 107.52 0.80 +0.75 79.36 35.48 Euro/dlr 1.42 0.00 +0.21 1.43 -0.85 * ICE sugar and ICE coffee in cents per lb, ICE cocoa, Liffe sugar and Liffe coffee in dollars per tonne. Liffe cocoa in pounds per tonne (Additional reporting by Nigel Hunt in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy)