Feb 12 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures edged higher on Wednesday, extending gains for the third straight session, as investors rolled over their positions from the front-month contract, although a stronger U.S. dollar kept prices in check.

* Cotton contracts for May CTc2 rose 0.07 cent, or 0.1%, at 68.52 cents per lb at 11:33 a.m. ET (1633 GMT).

* "We are rolling the open interest from March into May and July. They're getting ready for March delivery, which starts on February 24... So that is the overarching dominant fundamental that's happening," said Keith Brown, principal at cotton broker Keith Brown and Co in Georgia.

* Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar USD= rose after data showed that consumer prices rose more than economists expected in January. A stronger dollar makes greenback-priced cotton more expensive for overseas buyers. USD/

* Elsewhere, Chicago corn and wheat futures edged up while traders awaited further indications on crop weather and U.S. tariff policy. GRA/

* "Demand is seeing some improvements from where we were about a few weeks ago or even a month ago. We've had pretty steady sales on the US export sales every week," said Bailey Thomen, cotton risk management consultant at StoneX Group.

* The United States Department of Agriculture's weekly export sales report last week showed export sales of upland cotton rose 44% to 221,100 RB from the previous week and 12% from the prior four-week average.

* Traders now look forward to USDA's weekly export sales report due on Thursday for more cues on demand for the natural fiber.

* The agency in its February World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report on Tuesday kept their U.S. export estimates steady at 11.0 million, while the global export outlook was raised by 30,000 bales to 42.51 million.

(Reporting by Noel John and Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)

((Noel.John@thomsonreuters.com;))