Australia shares up 0.3 pct on firmer miners, near 17-month high

(Adds details, comments, stocks on the move)
CANBERRA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Australian shares touched a
nearly 17-month high in late morning trade on Wednesday as
miners rallied on higher iron ore prices and investors priced in
optimism about U.S. budget talks, with the Federal Reserve's
policy statement also due later in the day.
"Definitely the momentum is to the upside," said Stan Shamu,
a market analyst at IG Markets. "Everyone seems to be pricing in
a fairly positive outcome to the fiscal cliff negotiations as
well."
Investor sentiment turned positive after U.S. House of
Representatives Speaker John Boehner said he remained hopeful
about an agreement to tackle the fiscal crisis by the
end-of-year deadline.
Miners continued to lift the market on stronger iron ore
prices, with Rio Tinto Ltd advancing 0.5 percent and
Fortescue Metals jumping 3.3 percent.
Spot iron ore prices rose to their highest level since July,
backed by buying from top importer China in anticipation of a
stronger pickup in demand next year.
The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.3 percent, or 15.1
points, to 4,591.1 at 0031 GMT, extending gains into a fourth
straight session. The benchmark climbed 0.4 percent to a
seven-week high on Tuesday.
New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index was down 0.6
percent at 4,001.9.

STOCKS ON THE MOVE
* Top miner BHP Billiton Ltd rose 1.1 percent after
it said it would sell its interest in the Browse liquefied
natural gas project to PetroChina International Investment
(Australia) Pty Ltd for $1.63 billion.

(0032 GMT)

* Echo Entertainment Group Ltd jumped 3.1 percent ,
after it appointed John Redmond as managing director and chief
executive officer. He will start in January.
(0032 GMT)

* Linc Energy Ltd soared 14.4 percent, following a
15.5 percent surge on Tuesday.
The company told the Australian Stock Exchange on Tuesday it
had no explanation for the surge and it had provided updates on
its Carmichael coal project and clean energy technology in
recent days.
(0033 GMT)

(Reporting By Maggie Lu Yueyang; Editing by Paul Tait)