LONDON, Sept 6: Oil prices fell here on Monday despite new sabotage attacks on Iraqi pipelines and worries about tropical storm Frances, with the New York market closed for the Labour Day holiday.

The price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in October lost 43 cents to $40.80 per barrel in late deals. "It is very quiet because of the American holidays," said Prudential Bache trader Christopher Bellew, adding that prices were weaker in part because of selling by hedge funds wishing to lock in profits from high oil prices.

New York's reference contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, dipped seven cents to $43.99 per barrel on Friday, before the market closed for a three-day break.

In Iraq, saboteurs set ablaze a vital oil pipeline between the Iraqi city of Kirkuk and Turkey on Monday, just a day after the fire that halted all northern crude exports had been extinguished, an oil official told AFP.

"We had extinguished the fire Sunday at noon but unknown attackers reignited it Monday at 9:30 am (0530 GMT) by setting fire to the oil that had leaked on both sides of the pipeline," Ahmed Ali, from the Northern Oil Co., said.

"It will take us another 24 hours to put it out again," he added. A pipeline supplying gas to a major electrical plant south of Kirkuk was also attacked on Monday, a local police official told AFP.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Frances, which was downgraded to a tropical storm on Sunday, moved off Florida's west coast on Monday but experts said it could build up strength again over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

"Hurricane Frances did move into the Gulf of Mexico early this morning, so we are keeping an eye to see if anything happens to the refineries out there," Elliot said.

And yet another hurricane loomed in the distance. Hurricane Ivan, a dangerous Category 4 storm packing maximum sustained winds of nearly 215 km per hour, was a 1,010 km east-southeast of Barbados early Monday. -AFP