* STOXX 600 flat, miners top gainers

* Polish stocks shine after election

* SoftwareOne rises after Reuters report of PE bids Ocado falls as Barclays downgrades

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Oct 16 (Reuters) - European shares were flat on Monday as prospects of an escalation in the Middle East conflict kept investors on the sidelines, though equities in Poland climbed following Sunday's parliamentary election.

The STOXX 600 was steady at 448.39 points by 8:41 GMT, with risk sentiment on shaky grounds over concerns that the Israel-Hamas conflict would spill over to the broader region after Iran warned Israel of escalation.

The Euro STOXX volatility index hit an eight-week high.

"There's quite a lot of uncertainty and volatility is elevated today," said Giles Coghlan, chief market analyst at HYCM.

"If Iran does enter the conflict, then that would see a sharp rise in energy prices and that has an impact for inflation expectations."

Industrials were down 0.3%, with utilities also among top decliners and down 0.5%.

Limiting declines, the mining index rose 0.9% as prices of base metals were lifted by hopes of stronger demand from China.

Also boosting the index was a 2.0% gain in the shares of SSAB after JP Morgan upgraded the Swedish steel company to "overweight" from "neutral".

Energy stocks hit a fresh nine-year high and were last up 0.6% as crude prices eased, but held above $90 a barrel. Poland's WIG20 index rose 3.6%, outperforming other European indices after the ruling nationalists looked to have fallen short of a parliamentary majority in Sunday's election, potentially opening the way for the opposition to form a government.

Italian five-year credit default swaps rose to their highest in seven months as the cabinet prepared to approve a 2024 budget that has heightened concern about the country's strained finances. The FTSE MIB was down 0.1%.

Hopes that global central banks were near the end of their monetary tightening cycle had propped up the index in the past week, but evidence of sticky inflation in the United States and fears over the Middle East conflict have kept investors risk-averse.

Among other single stocks, Frankfurt-listed shares of BioNTech fell 6.8% after partner Pfizer on Friday slashed its full-year revenue forecast on lower sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and treatment.

SoftwareOne Holding jumped 5.0% after a Reuters report said that the Swiss software group received non-binding bids from private equity firms.

British online supermarket Ocado fell 3.8% after Barclays downgraded the stock to "underweight" from "equal-weight."

Shares of Telecom Italia slipped 3.0% after U.S. fund KKR submitted a binding bid for the Italian company's domestic fixed access network.

(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)