By Walter Brandimarte

NEW YORK, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Emerging sovereign debt prices edged up on Monday on low volume but overall prices remained in negative territory on the year as investors remained wary about the U.S. economic outlook.

Trying to take advantage of the relative calm, Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research)(PBR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) offered an additional $500 million of its 2018 global bonds, but the deal was delayed due to "volatile market conditions," a market source said. For details, see [ID:nN11165503].

Emerging debt spreads over U.S. Treasury notes, a key gauge of risk aversion, tightened 2 basis points to 283 basis points, still close to this year's high of 295 basis points, according to the JP Morgan EMBI+ index 11EMJ.

Overall bond returns climbed 0.11 percent but still remained negative for the year, after losses of 0.72 percent on Friday, the EMBI+ showed.

Brazil's global bond due 2040 <BRAGLB40=RR> slid for the third consecutive session, as longer-dated securities remained under pressure by U.S. recession fears, while shorter-dated bonds benefited from the expectation of lower U.S. rates.

Brazil's global 2040 bond, the most liquid emerging market paper, fell an additional 0.125 point in price, to be bid 132.500.

As emerging debt markets were finally dragged lower last week, after outperforming U.S. high-yield bonds for several months, analysts started to question whether the asset class has already priced in the more adverse global economic conditions.

"Those who do not believe much in the substantial fundamental improvement of emerging market countries take this (resilient performance) as preliminary evidence that a sharp correction awaits the asset class," Lehman Brothers' analysts wrote in a research note.