Miners and Dixons Carphone push FTSE higher

* Blue-chip FTSE 100 index up 0.2 percent

* Dixon Carphone gains after U.S. store deal

* Caution ahead of weekend, focus on Greek vote

* Intertek suffers downgrade on oil and gas exposure

By Alistair Smout and Liisa Tuhkanen

LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index edged higher on Thursday as electrical goods and mobile phone retailer Dixons Carphone (LSE: DC.L - news) rose after a U.S. deal and miners tracked stronger metals prices.

Investors remained nervous, avoiding strong bets because of uncertainty over Greece's debt crisis, traders said. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has urged Greeks to reject creditors' terms in a referendum on Sunday, after Greece failed to make a debt repayment to the IMF earlier in the week.

The UK mining index was up 1 percent, the top sectoral gainer, after prices of key industrial metals gained on signs the growth slowdown in top consumer China is levelling out. Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in global miner BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) were up 1.5 percent by 1115 GMT.

Dixons Carphone was up nearly 1.4 percent, off earlier highs, after announcing a deal with Sprint Corp. to open and manage Sprint-branded stores in the United States.

Analysts welcomed the deal by the retailer, formed last year from the merger of Dixons Retail and Carphone Warehouse.

"It's quite a smart move. There were a few questions over Carphone Warehouse's business model. They've diversified with the merger with Dixons, but expanding into the States ... makes a lot of sense," Jasper Lawler, analyst at CMC Markets, said.

Britain's benchmark FTSE 100 index was up 0.2 percent at 6,623.42 points. The index gained more than 1 percent on Wednesday, after sharply falling in the previous four sessions on concerns about Greece.

Traders said strong moves in either direction were unlikely before the weekend referendum.

Investors' focus was on U.S. jobs data later in the session. A strong set of jobs figures will raise expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike in September. Economists expect the U.S. economy to have added 232,000 jobs in June after May's unexpected 280,000 surge.

"The non-farm payrolls report provides a welcome distraction from Greece. The monster number from last month's jobs report is still fresh in traders' minds, and as we enter the second half of the year the thought of an interest rate hike from the Fed draws nearer," IG (LSE: IGG.L - news) analyst David Madden said.

The FTSE 100, which fell to a 5-1/2 month low earlier in the week, is about 7 percent below its record high of 7,122.74 points, reached in late April.

On the downside, Intertek fell 2.1 percent after it was downgraded to "underperform" by Jefferies, citing its exposure to oil and gas industries that have been hit by a fall in prices.

Babcock, British Land (LSE: BLND.L - news) , Burberry, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling and Royal Mail (LSE: RMG.L - news) traded without entitlement to their latest dividend payout, which trimmed a further 1.7 points off the FTSE 100, by Reuters calculations. (Additional reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)