August 21, 2002	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Saani 11,1423

MOSCOW, Aug 20: Opec member Kuwait’s oil minister said in an interview published on Tuesday that the cartel was ready to increase crude supplies to world markets if the United States decided to go ahead with a military strike on Iraq.

“If a war starts, Opec countries are ready to fill any possible supply disruption,” Kuwait’s acting oil minister, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah, said.

“Kuwait’s quota inside Opec is 1.7 million bpd, but we can export more, up to 2m bpd. Many others are also able to increase production, including S. Arabia, Iran, Algeria and the UAE,” Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah, in Moscow on a three-day visit, said.—Reuters