LONDON, England - April 20, 2011 - The price of gold topped $1,500 for the first time on Wednesday as a weaker dollar plus fears over high inflation and debt attracted investors into the traditional safe-haven precious metal.

Gold reached $1,505.65 an ounce at 09:45 GMT on the London Bullion Market. It later traded at $1,503.60.
Silver meanwhile hit a fresh 31-year high of $44.79 an ounce.

"Gold remains comfortably underpinned with short-term inflation pressures and economic woes triggering some fresh safe-haven inflows," said Andrey Kryuchenkov, commodities analyst at Russian financial group VTB Capital.

The metal is seen as a safe store of value in troubled economic and political times.

Meanwhile, the dollar fell against the euro, with the U.S. unit troubled by concerns over Washington's inability to tackle its high debt in the world's biggest economy.

Gold began its run towards $1,500 on Monday after ratings agency Standard & Poor's revised its outlook on U.S. sovereign debt to "negative" from "stable."