* Due to drop in inventories, rising costs of naphtha
* Prices up more than 10 percent since Nov. 23
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LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Benchmark European gasoline traded at a two-year high of $824 a tonne on Thursday in a rare price rally during the Northern Hemisphere winter.
Analysts attributed the rally to a recent drop in gasoline inventories in key consumer markets, an increase in spot international demand and a squeeze from expensive naphtha.
Benchmark Eurobob gasoline prices have risen more than 10 percent since Nov. 23 to trade between $817 and $824 a tonne fob in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp area on Thursday.
Reuters data showed that was the highest price since early October 2008.
Historically, gasoline is the oil market leader during summer, when demand from holidaymakers peaks in the United States and Europe. Then it tends to give up the role to gas oil and heating oil during winter.
"It is very interesting to observe the gasoline market over last couple of months, prices are very volatile," David Wech, oil analyst at JBC Energy, said.
Wech pointed out that a boost came from the fall in U.S. gasoline stocks, which have remained lower than year-earlier levels since early November, and demand from West Africa and the eastern part of Mediterranean.
Wech and Christophe Barret, global oil analyst at Credit Agricole, also said the tight supply of naphtha was reducing overall gasoline supply. Naphtha can be used as a petrochemical feedstock and blended into gasoline.
"Another important factor is the push from naphtha, which is extremely strong and is having a knock on effect on gasoline," Wech said. (Reporting by Zaida Espana and Ikuko Kurahone; Editing by Jane Baird)