CAIRO, May 11: Top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia and other key Arab members of Opec pledged here Saturday to ensure market stability amid appeals to avoid using oil as a political weapon in the Arab-Israeli crisis.

Saudi Arabia considers the stability of the market to be important in both the short and long term, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said here at a meeting of Arab oil producers, including members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) cartel.

Saudi Arabia has extra capacity of oil production to compensate for any shortage in oil supply, he added.

Other Gulf Arab oil producers like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, which along with Saudi Arabia are members of Opec, also supported market stability, seeing no need to increase oil output in the second half of the year if the current market situation prevails through June.

As things stand now, there is no need to increase output, Obeid bin Sief al-Nasser, the UAE oil minister, told reporters here.

Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamed al-Attiyah said: I see the market is adequately supplied and the current price is okay.

Arab oil producers were meeting in Cairo ahead of talks about production quotas in Vienna on June 26 by Opec, which includes seven of the Arab oil producers meeting here.

The Arab members of Opec are Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, the UAE, Libya, Algeria, and Qatar. Non-Opec members also attending are Egypt, Syria and Bahrain, as well as Sudan, Jordan Yemen and the Palestinian Authority.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in an opening statement read by his Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, urged oil ministers to ensure world “consumer confidence” and economic stability by not using oil as a political weapon.

In Texas last month, US President George W. Bush said after meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz that Riyadh had pledged not to use its oil exports to pressure Washington on the Middle East.

Iraq temporarily stopped oil exports last month in retaliation for Israel’s onslaught in the West Bank and US support for the Jewish state, but other producers did not follow suit and Baghdad resumed deliveries in the last week.

The oil expert representing Iraq here, Saddam Hassan, said Baghdad follows an independent patriotic oil policy, which rejects the imperialist attempt to isolate (delink) Arab oil from the Arab-Israeli conflict.

But he stopped short from saying if Iraq would launch a new oil embargo.

The Mubarak statement said: Your conference is an occasion to proclaim before the world that we respect the consumer and we want to satisfy his needs and the stability of his economy, and that we do not resort to pressure but we resort to dialogue.

Mubarak was later in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Crown Prince Abdullah, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader.

Though Iraq has resumed petroleum exports, the “oil weapon” could return to the fore if the Israeli-Arab conflict develops into a full-fledged war, said oil expert, Naji Abi Aad, from the Mediterranean Energy Observatory.

The Gulf Arabs have repeatedly stated their commitment to stable oil supplies, but credible US press reports had said the Saudis did consider at one point last month the “oil weapon”, despite the kingdom’s official denials.

The meeting comes as Opec is under increasing pressure from industrial countries to increase production to check the rise in oil prices, currently around $25 per barrel.

The 11-member Opec slashed its total output by 1.5 million barrel per day on January 1 for six months, under an agreement with independent producers designed to push up the price of the barrel of crude, then less than $20.—AFP