LONDON, Sept 24: Oil prices were slightly higher on Tuesday as the threat of a war in the Middle East continued to loom large over the market, although profit taking trimmed earlier gains.

Reference Brent North Sea crude oil for November delivery rose eight cents to $29.21 a barrel, having earlier risen to its highest level in around a year.

In New York, the benchmark light sweet crude November contract, which soared 87 cents a barrel to $30.71 on Monday — its highest level in two years — was up nine cents at 30.80 in early deals.

GNI analyst Lawrence Eagles said with the market having broken out of technical ranges, the market was starting to look like “a runaway train”.

“Stand in front of it at your peril,” he said.

The latest rally came after US President George W. Bush warned on Monday there were “no negotiations with Saddam Hussein about what he should do or not do.”

Those remarks came just a day after Iraq defiantly announced it would not comply with any new resolution on the return of UN weapons inspectors.

Saudi Arabia and other leading producers in the region have indicated they would probably be prepared to boost output if necessary to keep prices down.

But former Saudi oil minister and co-founder of Opec, Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, warned on Tuesday that prices could shoot up to $100 a barrel in the event of a war.

If there were a war and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had the feeling that he was to be eliminated, he could fire chemical weapons on Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Yamani told the latest edition of the German magazine DMEuro.—AFP