PARIS, April 9: The booming Chinese economy will cause stronger than expected growth in world oil demand this year, but Opec's announced production cut is so far only "symbolic", the International Energy Agency said on Friday.

Chinese demand for oil products, seen as one factor behind high oil prices in recent months, continued in March to exceed expectations, the IEA said in its monthly oil report. "China's fast-rising energy consumption fuels most of the growth in global oil demand," the Paris-based agency said.

With firm Chinese demand offsetting lower-than-expected deliveries in Japan, the IEA raised its global oil demand forecast for this year to 80.3 million barrels per day. Provisional figures showed that Chinese oil demand surged 18 per cent in the first quarter of this year from the first three months of 2003, representing 900,000 bpd.

"Robust end-user demand and the reappearance of tight primary stocks, including localised product shortages, suggest that second-quarter apparent demand may again exceed expectations, despite seasonal maintenance at several large refineries," the agency said. Booming Chinese demand has been one of the factors that have lifted oil prices recently to their highest levels since Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. -AFP