LONDON: The United States energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, on Monday urged Britain and other allies to emulate the Americans in building up oil reserves to help prevent global economic disruption in the event of war in the Middle East.

During a visit to the International Petroleum Exchange in London, Abraham confirmed last week’s reports that the US has already started building up reserves in caverns beneath the Gulf of Mexico.

With a capacity of 700 million barrels, the officially named strategic petroleum reserve is being filled to prevent the kind of oil shock that depressed the global economy during the Opec-led oil crisis of the 70s and again when the 1991 Gulf war forced up oil prices. That price rise forced President George Bush’s father out of office a year later.

Abraham insisted that the US move was merely a matter of “overall energy security” and not linked to fears that oil supplies from the Middle East could be disrupted by a conflict with Iraq.

Washington’s doubt about European resolve to take a tough line in a crisis is reciprocated by European sensitivity to economic shocks that Americans do not feel so severely. Visiting US officials feel obliged to give what they regard as wake-up calls.

Abraham’s comments will inevitably fuel the belief that the US is set on military action to topple Saddam Hussein, more probably in 2003 after US congressional elections in November.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.