UPDATE1: Tokyo stocks rise in morning on hope of ECB action.

TOKYO, Aug. 27 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING DETAILS, PRICES)

Tokyo stocks edged up Monday morning as concerns about the eurozone sovereign debt crisis eased slightly on hopes that the European Central Bank will purchase bonds of troubled bloc members.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average added 30.46 points, or 0.34 percent, from Friday to 9,101.22. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange edged up 0.36 point, or 0.05 percent, to 757.59.

Gainers were led by the mining, air transport and precision machinery sectors. Decliners included the electricity and gas, iron and steel, and insurance sectors.

Sentiment somewhat improved following reports Friday that the ECB is mulling new ways to purchase bonds to support the region's financially troubled countries including Spain and Italy, brokers said.

Investors were also relieved about the future course of debt-laden Greece following meetings between eurozone leaders over the weekend, they said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande separately met with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to discuss the revision of Greece's austerity measures it needs to implement to receive a bailout, as the country seeks for a two-year extension of the austerity measures.

"Although they didn't reach a conclusion on the issues, both (Merkel and Hollande) have reportedly said they want Greece to stay in the eurozone, which added to expectations that some sort of measures to help Greece will come out," said Hiroichi Nishi, equity division manager at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc.

But gains were limited, with trading volume remaining extremely thin ahead of the end of the month as well as before key events including a slew of eurozone leaders' meetings and U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech later this week, the brokers said.

Sharp rose 6 yen, or 3.1 percent, to 198 yen, as investors welcomed a news report at the weekend that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. of Taiwan is expected to buy a 9.9 percent stake in struggling Japanese manufacturer, unchanged from the ratio originally agreed by the two companies earlier.

Kansai Electric Power shed 39 yen, or 5.6 percent, to 658 yen on the Nikkei business daily's report that the utility plans to skip dividend payments for the April-September period for the first time in 32 years.

On the First Section, advancing issues outnumbered declining ones 788 to 636, while 227 remained unchanged in the morning.