LONDON, Jan 27: Oil prices fell on Monday on signs that a war in Iraq might be further away than previously thought, after a key report from UN arms experts appeared to pave the way for more weapons inspections, analysts said.

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix told the UN Security Council that Iraq had largely cooperated with arms experts but had not accepted international demands that it disarm.

The price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for March delivery fell to $29.95 per barrel in late trading here from $30.49 at the close of the previous session.

In New York, light sweet crude March-dated futures slumped 73 cents per barrel to $32.55.

Lawrence Eagles, analyst at brokers GNI-Man Financial, said that traders had scaled back their expectations of the timing of a war in Iraq somewhat, though most still believed the United States would launch military action.

“The more negative aspect seems to be the comment from the British UN envoy that the UN deliberations on Iraq aren’t going to be conclusive this week,” he said.

But he added: “Most people still feel that war seems to be inevitable.”

British ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said after the report was delivered that Britain agreed with the German presidency of the UN Security Council that a new report was needed by weapons inspectors to the council on February 14.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov meanwhile said that the report pointed the way for more inspections in Iraq.

Amid signs of a split between the United States and other members of the UN Security Council such as France and Russia, traders were trying to gauge whether the US administration might wage a solo war on Iraq.

“If the US was prepared to give the inspectors more time, that would be enough to ease oil prices,” said Commerzbank analyst Steve Turner.

The United States told other members of the UN Security Council that it expected them to decide to enforce resolutions on Iraq “in the days ahead”.—AFP