OSAKA, Sept 23: Saudi Arabia, the dominant member of the Opec cartel on Monday resisted pressure from Western and Asian countries to lower oil prices but said spare capacity was ready in case of a crisis.

Speaking after the final session of the International Energy Forum, Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali Ibrahim Naimi rejected suggestions that the current oil price band be changed to between 10 and $30.

This is not desirable, it is too broad and too wide, he said.

That price band compares with the current $22 to 28 band, and the change would have given the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) the scope to lower oil prices from the current 28 dollars a barrel to around $20 being sought by industrialised and Asian countries.

The current price includes a three to five-dollar war premium, sparked by fears of a United States-led invasion of Iraq.

But Opec has left the door open for a price adjustment by calling an extraordinary meeting for December 12 in Vienna.

Last week the 11-member Opec cartel opted to leave quotas unchanged with total production at 21.7 million barrels a day with the aim of keeping oil prices between $22 and 28 a barrel.

Naimi said the current band, is to protect the stability of the market and we believe it has had very little negative impact on economic growth.

Lower oil costs would provide a fillip to flagging Western economies, particularly Europe, the United States and Canada ahead of the approaching northern hemisphere winter.—AFP