GRANMA SANTIAGO DE CHILE.— For the first time in the history of the Organization of American States (OAS), the United States has been left out of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which has just ended its 23rd General Assembly here.

PL comments that George Bush’s government unsuccessfully promoted Cuban-American Rafael Martínez, brother of current U.S. secretary for Housing and Urban Development Mel Martínez, for a position in that agency.

However, Washington’s nominee only received 15 out of 33 possible votes; his failure marks the first time that the IACHR has worked without a U.S. representative, informed OAS officials.

The 33 participating countries elected lawyers from Brazil, El Salvador, Paraguay and Venezuela.

Guatemalan Marta Altolaguirre, who has presided over the panel to date, was not re-elected, nor was Argentine lawyer Juan Méndez. Both have traditionally received Washington’s support.

DOHA - AFP - OPEC announced on Wednesday it will maintain its current production ceiling at least until July 31 when it meets in Vienna to discuss Iraq's return to the market, but urged members to comply strictly to quotas.

"We agreed in April that the ceiling is 25.4 million barrels per day (bpd) from June 1," OPEC President Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah told reporters at the end of an extraordinary meeting of the cartel in Qatar.

"Today we reconfirmed this agreement. We hope there will be no overproduction (above quotas) during this period" - which is effective until July 31.

Attiyah added that the 11-member oil cartel would do "whatever it can" for war-torn Iraq, adding it was difficult to predict when Baghdad would overcome its technical problems and resume exports.

"We hope we can see a government in Iraq, an oil minister. Until then, we will continue discussing with Iraqi oil officials how we can collaborate."

Attiyah said the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries would do its "best to accommodate Iraq smoothly," treating it as a "unique" case in order to keep it within the cartel which was born in Baghdad 43 years ago.

The US-British coalition ruling Iraq has said it would be up to the next Iraqi government to decide on remaining in the cartel also made up by Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

In a statement released at the end of the meeting, OPEC said stability has been "maintained in the market following the decision taken by the (OPEC) conference in April 2003 to reduce actual production to 25.4 million bpd, with prices remaining within agreed levels".

"Despite the fact that the market remains well-supplied, prices displayed an upward trend recently due to the slower-than-anticipated recovery in Iraqi production, coupled with unusually low stock levels," it said.

"However, with low stock levels anticipated to be replenished during the third quarter, the conference decided to maintain currently agreed production levels, with strict compliance, and emphasised that continued vigilance in monitoring market developments is imperative over the coming period."

OPEC said it "welcomed the return of Iraq to the oil market" and looks forward to the country's resumption of its role in the organisation.

"The conference again made its standing call on other oil producers/exporters to continue to cooperate with OPEC in its endeavours to maintain market stability in the interests of all concerned."

Attiyah said the cartel will meet in Vienna on July 31 even if Iraq does not resume exports, in order to "assess the market".

He refused to speculate on the volume that could be eventually slashed by OPEC on July 31 should Iraq resume exports, but hinted that non-OPEC exporters would have to join in any potential cut.

"Co-operation with them (non-OPEC) is important," he said.

Non-OPEC states Angola, Mexico, Oman, Russia and Syria all took part in the Doha meeting as observers, underlining their commitment to co-operate with OPEC.

OPEC ministers have said that the cartel was currently producing in excess of one million bpd above the cartel's ceiling.

The OPEC president said the conference in Doha was initially a "meeting to cut" production to accommodate the upcoming Iraqi exports.

But the oil ministers decided to maintain the ceiling because "it is difficult to predict when Iraq will return to the market," he added.

According to OPEC's estimates, Iraq's production should reach 2 million bpd by the end of the year, about 700,000 bpd below pre-war level. This would leave Iraq with 1.5 million bpd of exports only.

Oil prices were little moved shortly after OPEC's announcement, remaining slightly lower than the previous day's close.

In London, the price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for July delivery was down 19 cents to 27.93 dollars per barrel.

New York's light sweet crude July contract was 11 cents lower at 31.62 dollars per barrel in out-of-hours electronic trading.

"The market had so much anticipated this decision to keep quotas unchanged, that is why oil prices have not moved sharply," said Prudential Bache analyst Christopher Bellew.

OPEC had previously been tipped to cut quotas to shore up prices, but these have stayed strong in recent weeks, buoyed by low stocks in the United States.

AFP

June 11 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumping at near-record levels, agreed to leave its oil quotas in place as delays in Iraqi sales drive up prices.

There is no shortage of oil,'' said OPEC President Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah in Doha, Qatar, where the group met today and agreed to maintain a sales target of 25.4 million barrels a day. I don't think the price will jump. We are watching the market very carefully.''

The group will reconvene July 31, and members are ``committed'' to reduce supplies this month under their agreement reached in April, the president said. OPEC is concerned that a return of Iraqi oil production after the war will flood the market, causing prices to drop.

OPEC is lobbying non-members including Norway and Mexico for support in lowering output later this year, seeking to keep prices within the cartel's target range of $22 to $28 a barrel. OPEC's price index was at $27.51 a barrel yesterday, up 22 percent in the past year. Crude oil was down 20 cents at $27.90 a barrel as of 2:31 p.m. in London on the International Petroleum Exchange.

Ministers instead of reducing quotas have called for greater compliance with the existing targets. OPEC's 10 members outside of Iraq in May pumped 26.4 million barrels a day, according to Bloomberg estimates, above the group's goal by 1 million barrels.

Iraq

Iraqi exports stopped when U.S. and British forces invaded on March 20 to oust President Saddam Hussein over allegations he was amassing weapons of mass destruction. Looting since then has hampered efforts to restore production. The nation is now producing 700,000 barrels a day, which may rise to 1.5 million this month, officials have said.

There is now almost a balanced market,'' said Abdulhasid Mahmoud Zlitni, Libya's top oil official, in Doha. Looking ahead to the arrival of Iraq oil on the market, if members do not cut supply to the level of production agreed to in Vienna, there will be 600,000 to 800,000 barrels of oversupply,'' he said.

Oil officials in Iraq have said the nation will take months to get to normal. The head of Iraq's northern oil fields said the export pipeline to Ceyhan, Turkey, may be shut for eight weeks because theft has disabled control systems. The southern manager said output will peak this month at 800,000 barrels a day, barely a third of prewar levels, until security resumes.

If you look at the history of the last two months, expected Iraqi export levels have been continuously revised down and pushed out,'' said Pieter Bruinstroop, who manages resource-company investments for APS Asset Management Ltd. in Singapore. All that OPEC can do, like it has done, is say, `OK, when production gets to about 2.5 million barrels, we will cut.'''

Iraq, a founding member of OPEC in 1960, had no representatives at the meeting. The OPEC president said he's waiting for an internationally recognized government in Iraq to designate an oil minister to attend OPEC meetings.

Russia

In addition to its own reductions, OPEC wants cutbacks from non-members Russia, Norway, Mexico and Oman. Norway this week has said it may consider such a move if prices drop. The nations have in the past cooperated with OPEC to restrict supplies and keep prices high.

The interests of Russia and OPEC concur in many ways,'' said Russian deputy minister of fuel and energy Alexander Voronin in Doha. But making decisions on how much oil to export, Russia, as it did before, will proceed from the needs of the Russian economy and the necessity of increasing the living standards of our population.''

Oil inventories are falling in the U.S., the world's largest energy consumer, also bolstering prices. Supplies are at 289 million barrels, according to government estimates, down 11 percent in the past year.

Oil inventories in industrialized countries are relatively tight for this time of year,'' al-Attiyah said. This may serve to support oil prices in the coming months.''

OPEC's 11 members are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Algeria, Nigeria, Libya, Indonesia and Venezuela.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 By: David Coleman

Venezuela's opposition is claiming congressional victory over what they describe as President Hugo Chavez Frias' "diluted majority" after they succeeded in rejection of a reform to internal parliamentary debate rules, Tuesday.

But they may have preempted a ruling by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) which was asked, Monday, to decide on the legality of an external session of Venezuela's congress convened on Friday of last week on the steps of the El Calvario monument after opposition deputies went berserk in an attempt to filibuster passage.

• The El Calvario Congress, held with a quorum of 83 members of parliament, approved the motion which the opposition are now seeking to have declared illegal.

Parliamentary rules state unequivocally that  at least 50% + 1 of the nation's 164 legislators must be in attendance at any plenary session to have legal effect but opposition Accion Democratica (AD) secretary general Henry Ramos Allup disputes that any quorum of 83 was indeed achieved ... "The truth is that they did not gather together the 83 deputies that were necessary to validate the little circus they committed to last week ... the vote should have taken place in El Capitolio anyway!"

Nevertheless, political observers see the brouhaha as just the latest in a series of delaying tactics by opposition deputies who are attempting to show that the Chavez Frias government is slow and ineffective ... many are now admitting it will be impossible for them to appoint a new National Electoral College (CNE) board of directors in time to kick-start democratic procedures after August 19 when President Hugo Chavez Frias' term of office reaches its halfway point.

The CNE board is necessary to direct a massive revision of electoral registers and to eliminate falsifications and deceased voters from the rolls before a preliminary vote can be held to ask Congress to call for a revocatory referendum.

Government deputies at the El Calvario session of congress said they were forced to take remedial action after 79 opposition deputies attempted to turn the ordinary session to utter chaos.  In somewhat childish response the opposition decided to boycott Friday's session claiming it was being held "on enemy territory" despite special security arrangements and the presence of 5,000 National Guardsmen to protect proceedings.

Pending the TSJ ruling, the Friday-approved motion remains suspended ... the government bench counterclaims that the opposition is using a party political imbalance on an internal debates and procedure committee to filibuster a series of necessary reform laws which will take Venezuelan governance away from the political-economic corruption of the last 50 years.  The reforms also include a regulation of radio and television broadcasting to set a series of controls on violence and sex at times when young children may be watching.

VIENNA, Austria, April 24, 2003 (AP) "We feel we may need another cut in June." OPEC President Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah (CBS) OPEC members agreed to cut their current oil output by 2 million barrels a day, or 7 percent, in a move aimed at preventing a further decline in prices, the cartel announced Thursday.

At the same time, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries temporarily raised its official output target to 25.4 million barrels, up 900,000 barrels a day from its existing ceiling. The new quota would take effect June 1, OPEC President Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah told a news conference.

The delegates announced their decision after emergency talks in Vienna. Crude prices have tumbled in recent weeks, and OPEC feared a further decline if it didn't rein in what it saw as an oversupply just as crude demand reached a seasonal low.

The group based its decision largely on what it said was sluggish global demand exacerbated by the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, which Al-Attiyah said has dampened demand by 300,000 barrels a day.

OPEC would review its decision when it meets again June 11 in Doha, Qatar.

"We feel we may need another cut in June," Al-Attiyah said.

OPEC also was ready to welcome Iraq back as a participating member, he added.

"I hope Iraq comes back tomorrow," he said, adding later: "We will accommodate Iraq at the right time."

Several OPEC members had boosted their production before the war, hoping to head off a supply shortage. The rapid end of the conflict left them facing what they see as a surplus of 2 million barrels a day.

"It is important to reduce oversupply," Venezuela's Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez told reporters before the hastily arranged talks began. "We have to have more discipline, and it is important to take measures and remove that amount from the market."

If not, OPEC, whose 11 members pump a third of the world's crude output, wouldn't be able to maintain its price target of US$25 a barrel, he said.

OPEC representatives called Thursday's meeting to reassess the group's output levels as oil began flowing again in Iraq for the first time since the war.

Many energy analysts had expected OPEC to agree to curb production. The question was whether OPEC would try do so by lowering its official output target or by taking the much less drastic step of reining in the amount of oil its members were pumping above their respective quotas.

In the end, it took the unusual decision of slashing its actual production — which it calculated as 27.4 million barrels a day, including Iraq — while also raising the nominal ceiling for OPEC's 10 members excluding Iraq. OPEC's current target is 24.5 million barrels a day.

The decision means Saudi Arabia, OPEC's most powerful member, would reduce its production by 1 million barrels a day, Al-Attiyah said.

In the days leading up to hostilities in Iraq, U.S. crude prices peaked at almost $40 a barrel. On Thursday, contracts of U.S. light, sweet crude for June delivery were trading in New York at $26.71 a barrel, up 6 cents from Wednesday's close. In London, June contracts of North Sea Brent crude were trading at $24.42, up 16 cents a barrel.