LONDON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Copper prices edged higher on Tuesday as optimism that top metals consumer China would unleash more stimulus balanced worries that other major economies may be heading to recession.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.2% at $7,988 per metric ton by 1000 GMT after probing an 11-month low in the previous session.

China is set to launch fresh stimulus to shore up economic recovery, with parliament expected to approve just over 1 trillion yuan in additional sovereign debt issuance, sources told Reuters.

"In China, house prices are still weak, which is rather negative as the government has already been injecting stimulus. On the other hand, the macro stuff has been pretty robust and metals demand is good as well," said Dan Smith, head of research at Amalgamated Metal Trading (AMT).

On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most-traded December copper contract advanced 0.9% to 66,490 yuan ($9,099.62) a ton.

Market confidence was also boosted after China's state fund Central Huijin Investment bought exchange-traded funds, Jinrui Futures said in a report.

Tight copper scrap supply, coupled with falling refined copper prices, has improved consumption of the metal, but not significantly, the report said, noting that a bearish macroeconomic outlook will continue to pressure copper prices.

Data on Tuesday showed Euro zone business activity took a surprise turn for the worse this month as demand fell in a broad-based downturn across the region, suggesting the bloc may slip into recession.

Copper has a bearish outlook over six to 12 months and the LME price is likely to head towards $7,000 a ton, AMT's Smith added.

"I think copper will steadily break lower in next few weeks and months. It's pretty clear the fundamental side of things is turning weaker and I'm not sure demand is going to be quite strong enough to fight that tide."

In other metals, LME aluminium dipped 0.3% to $2,170 a metric ton and nickel eased 0.7% to $18,045 while zinc was unchanged at $2,420, lead added 0.3% to $2,108 and tin rose 0.3% to $24,975. ($1 = 7.3069 yuan) (Reporting by Eric Onstad Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)