RIYADH, Oct 17: Opec heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran pledged on Wednesday to do whatever is necessary to maintain stability in the oil market, after talks between their oil ministers.

We are ready to do whatever is necessary to maintain stability in the oil market, both Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Nuaimi and his Iranian counterpart, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, said one after the other at a joint news conference.

The two men held talks in Riyadh amid efforts to shore up oil prices, which have nosedived since the September 11 terror attacks in the United States.

We examined the situation on the (oil) market and expressed our desire to preserve market stability, Nuaimi said.

He told reporters he and his Iranian counterpart had agreed to try to uphold prices as much as possible through deliberations within OPEC and discussions with major non-Opec producers.

We decided to contact major (non-Opec) producers as soon as possible to (ensure their) cooperation with us in maintaining market stability, the Saudi oil minister said.

Zanganeh said Iran believes oil producers “should do everything necessary” to preserve stability on the oil market.

Non-Opec producers should also contribute to efforts to stabilize the market, he said.

Zanganeh arrived from Tehran with a message to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz from President Mohamm1b Fhatami on the crude price slide and how to stabilize markets, Iranian state radio said.

His trip came ahead of a visit to Riyadh on Saturday by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for talks on the oil market.

On Tuesday, Khatami also discussed the market by telephone with Chavez, who is expected in Tehran next week.

The Iranian head of state called for Opec producers to coordinate their policies in order to avoid a drop in the price per barrel and to guarantee the interests of producing and consuming countries.

Chavez, for his part, expressed his “preoccupation” over the drop in oil prices, the radio said.

Chavez is lobbying other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to keep up oil prices, possibly through a cut in output.

Khatami has blamed the slumping crude prices on what he said was an output increase by non-Opec oil producers.

Crude prices plunged in the wake of last month’s terror attacks on New York and Washington, as markets react to slowing demand from increasingly recession-hit economies around the world.

A senior Iranian oil industry executive said the country’s oil revenue income was down 12.2 per cent in the first half of the year starting March compared with the same period last year.

Iran’s oil revenue income stood at $9.8 billion at the end of September 2001 aainst $11.15 billion during the same period in 2000, the deputy director of Iran’s National Oil Company, Hojatollah Qanimifard, was quoted as telling the Jomhuri-Eslami daily on Wednesday.

Qanimifard said the main causes of the slide were a drop in oil exports following a decision by Opec as well as a drop in the price per barrel, according to the conservative daily.

LONDON: Crude prices shrugged on Wednesday at the latest exhortations from Opec oil exporters for action to boost a market that has sagged heavily since last month’s terrorist attacks in the United States.