MUMBAI, Feb 15 (Reuters) - India's cotton prices may remain higher this week on rising exports and a fall in arrivals of the commodity in the domestic market, analysts and traders said.

India's cotton arrivals stood at 18.55 million bales of 170 kg each so far, down from 18.95 million bales during the same period last year, an official with Cotton Corp. of India told Reuters last week.

The daily average arrivals have declined to 160,000 bales from 180,000 bales last month he said.

"Our arrivals are very good ...Maharashtra arrivals have been poor so far," said Bipin Shah, a trader in Rajkot, Gujarat.

Arrivals rose about 31 percent to 6.3 million bales in Gujarat, while they were down over 22 percent to 3.6 million bales in Maharashtra. The two states are India's top cotton producers.

Spot prices of popular medium staple Shankar-6 variety traded in the range of 3,225 rupees and 3,255 rupees per 100 kg almost similar to previous week, a trader said.

Rising exports are also supporting prices, analysts and traders said.

India's cotton export in the first four months of 2009/10 jumped by 245 percent to 2.79 million bales, data on textile ministry's website showed.

In Oct-Jan the country shipped 2.79 million bales, compared to 809,969 bales a year ago, data showed.

India's cotton exports are expected to jump by 57 percent to 5.5 million bales in 2009/10, A.B. Joshi, textile commissioner and chairman of Cotton Advisory Board (CAB), had earlier said.

(Reporting by Sourav Mishra; Editing by Ramya Venugopal)