* Apple bars iTunes from syncing with Palm's Pre phone

* Palm shares down 3 percent (adds Apple comment)

NEW YORK, July 16 (Reuters) - Shares of Palm Inc (PALM.O: Quote, Profile, Research) fell more than 3 percent on Thursday after Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) closed a loophole in iTunes that had allowed the music management software to be synchronized with Palm's Pre phone.

On Wednesday, Apple released an update to iTunes -- which complements the iPod and iPhone devices -- meant to fix software bugs and "addresses an issue with verification of Apple devices."

"It also disables devices falsely pretending to be iPods, including the Palm Pre. As we've said before, newer versions of Apple's iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with unsupported digital media players," said Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr.

A representative for Palm did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Before the June launch of the Pre, whose introduction has helped revive Palm's fortunes and fueled a sharp increase in its stock price this year, Palm had touted its smartphone as one that "synchronizes seamlessly with iTunes."

"Simply connect Pre to your PC or Mac via the USB cable, select "media sync" on the phone, and iTunes will launch on your computer desktop," the company said in a press release.

Analyst Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros. said he was not surprised by Apple's move, which he said was "the right thing" to do to protect its intellectual property.