February 20, 2007	Tuesday	Safar 2, 1428

LONDON, Feb 19: World oil prices fell on Monday with warmer weather expected in the United States, and despite fresh unrest in Nigeria, Africa's biggest producer of crude.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for April delivery lost 64 cents to $58.31 per barrel in electronic trading.

New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, sank 82 cents to $58.57 per barrel in electronic deals. Floor trading was shut owing to a US public holiday.

Oil prices dropped on Monday even though Croatia's foreign ministry said that two Croatians and a Montenegrin worker had been kidnapped in Nigeria.

Industry sources in Nigeria had earlier said that three Croatians were taken hostages at gunpoint in the oil capital of Port Harcourt, the chief town in the southern Rivers State.

They were the latest of dozens of foreigners kidnapped in the region over recent months. These men were employed by HydroDive, an offshore engineering company that is a subcontractor for Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Nigeria.

World oil prices had closed with a gain of more than a dollar on Friday.—AFP