NZOOM

Opec this week is set to press independent exporters to back the cartel's next supply cut to prevent the resumption of Iraqi exports undercutting oil prices.

Opec President Abdullah al-Attiyah made clear that major non-aligned producers Mexico, Russia and Norway would be called on to help the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries defend its $US25 a barrel price target.

"Yes. We require their support... I feel we have their support," Attiyah, also oil minister of Qatar, told reporters in Doha ahead of Wednesday's meeting.

With oil prices at the top end of the group's $US22-$US28 preferred price range, some ministers have said there appears no need for any immediate cut from its 25.4 million barrel a day output limit.

But the cartel is preparing the ground for possible restraints later this year by putting early pressure on its rivals to prevent them winning market share.

It may need to meet again to consider output policy before its next scheduled late-September conference.

Opec powers Saudi Arabia and Venezuela met with Mexico in Madrid on Friday to discuss the reemergence of Iraq on the world market and Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez travels to Norway on Monday.

Recovering from the US-led war, Baghdad is preparing to resume international sales in about a week's time. Shipments are expected to stay well below pre-war levels for several months.

With US crude now over $US31 a barrel, alarm bells are ringing in Washington as summer gasoline demand puts upward pressure on import prices.

"We won't just cut for the sake of cutting," Attiyah said.

"I don't want to see my consumers angry, I believe the customer is always right but we have to be careful about the balance between demand and supply."

Opec has not needed to reduce production limits since late 2001, when it slashed supplies on condition that independent producers contribute. They resisted until prices slumped and then fell into line.

Russia, Mexico, Syria, Oman, Egypt and Angola among non-Opec will be represented officially in Doha, for the first time at an extraordinary Opec meeting.

The main subject of oil market debate, Iraq, will not send a delegation, an issue which has rankled Iraqi officials.

Attiyah acknowledged there had been no contact between Opec headquarters and Iraq since the US occupation, but urged Iraqis at Baghdad's interim authority to get in touch.

"I did not receive any request from Iraq, but personally I'd be happy to talk to them," he said, adding he hoped Baghdad would be able to attend Opec's next scheduled meeting in September.

(<a href=www.msnbc.com>Reuters) DOHA, Qatar, June 8 — OPEC this week is set to press independent exporters to back the cartel’s next supply cut to prevent the resumption of Iraqi exports undercutting oil prices.     OPEC PRESIDENT Abdullah al-Attiyah made clear on Sunday that major non-aligned producers Mexico, Russia and Norway would be called on to help the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries defend its $25 a barrel price target.        “Yes. We require their support ... I feel we have their support,” Attiyah, also oil minister of Qatar, told reporters in Doha ahead of Wednesday’s meeting.        With oil prices at the top end of the group’s $22-$28 preferred price range, some ministers have said there appears no need for any immediate cut from its 25.4 million barrel a day output limit.        But the cartel is preparing the ground for possible restraints later this year by putting early pressure on its rivals to prevent them winning market share.        It may need to meet again to consider output policy before its next scheduled late-September conference.        OPEC powers Saudi Arabia and Venezuela met with Mexico in Madrid on Friday to discuss the reemergence of Iraq on the world market and Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez travels to Norway on Monday.      Recovering from the U.S.-led war, Baghdad is preparing to resume international sales in about a week’s time. Shipments are expected to stay well below pre-war levels for several months.        With U.S. crude now over $31 a barrel, alarm bells are ringing in Washington as summer gasoline demand puts upward pressure on import prices.        “We won’t just cut for the sake of cutting,” Attiyah said.        “I don’t want to see my consumers angry, I believe the customer is always right but we have to be careful about the balance between demand and supply.”        OPEC has not needed to reduce production limits since late 2001, when it slashed supplies on condition that independent producers contribute. They resisted until prices slumped and then fell into line.        Russia, Mexico, Syria, Oman, Egypt and Angola among non-OPEC will be represented officially in Doha, for the first time at an extraordinary OPEC meeting.        The main subject of oil market debate, Iraq, will not send a delegation, an issue which has rankled Iraqi officials.        Attiyah acknowledged there had been no contact between OPEC headquarters and Iraq since the U.S. occupation, but urged Iraqis at Baghdad’s interim authority to get in touch.        “I did not receive any request from Iraq, but personally I’d be happy to talk to them,” he said, adding he hoped Baghdad would be able to attend OPEC’s next scheduled meeting in September.

<a href=www.falkland-malvinas.com>Mercosur Press Sunday, 08 June

The OAS general assembly in Santiago de Chile will be the scenario for another round of United States-Brazil talks, in anticipation of Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s official visit to Washington.

According to the Brazilian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Brazilian Minister Celso Amorim will be holding talks with his United States counterpart Colin Powell, particularly regarding the Free Trade Association of the Americas, FTAA, currently presided by United States and Brazil, and scheduled to become effective in 2005.

At the end of May US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick visited Brazil expecting to speed FTAA talks and meeting President Lula da Silva.

He was unable to meet the President and Mr. Amorim said that “even when Brazil will not abandon the FTAA project, it’s not in a hurry to implement the association since the country has other priority urgencies”.

One of those urgencies is strengthening Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), and another ensuring that the disparity in development of the economies involved in a future FTAA are considered previously.

Nevertheless Mr. Zoellick in Brasilia expressed his optimism about the FTAA 2005 timetable.

While in Santiago Mr. Amorim is expected to hold talks with his counterparts from Mercosur, associate members Chile and Bolivia, Canada and the Andean Community of Nations, CAN, that includes Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela and which Brazil is anxious to integrate to Mercosur creating a only South American block.

Sun June 8, 2003 04:01 PM ET CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez described himself on Sunday as "ugly" and "sometimes uncouth" but said he was not a communist and did not believe communism could work in his oil-rich country.

Defending his turbulent rule in the world's No. 5 oil exporter, the populist leader dismissed criticism of his appearance, behavior and politics.

"I'm ugly ... black mixed with Indian, that's me," he said, referring jokingly but proudly to his mixed-race ancestry which he shares with most of Venezuela's population.

"I'm a little uncouth sometimes. What can I do? I'm not going to change," Chavez added, speaking during his weekly "Hello President" television and radio show.

Chavez rose from obscurity to become a national figure in 1992 when he tried to seize power in a botched coup. Launching a political career after two years in jail, he won a landslide election in late 1998, promising a self-styled "revolution" to help his country's poor majority.

But his opponents, who have waged a determined campaign of protests and strikes against him, accuse Chavez of ruling like a dictator and of trying to install Cuba-style communism.

"I am not a communist ... if I was, I would say so," Chavez said. He added this distinguished him from Cuban President Fidel Castro, with whom he has forged a close alliance that has irked the United States, the main buyer of Venezuela's oil.

"Fidel Castro, my friend and brother, is a communist, but Venezuela's project is not communist," Chavez said. "At this moment in Venezuela, the program cannot be a communist one."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, June 08, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Controversy surrounding representation at the International Labor Organization (ILO) continues ... this time inside Geneva itself where former Federation of Chambers of Industry & Commerce (Fedecamaras) presidents, Eddo Poesel and Vicente Brito accuse President Hugo Chavez Frias of violating employer-worker relations. 

It would appear that the former Fedecamaras presidents, whose rights to be present at the ILO can be questioned, are waiting for the arrival of exiled Fedecamaras president Carlos Fernandez and exiled Venezuelan Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV) president, Carlos Ortega to put the latest opposition strategy into play, namely to put President Chavez Frias on trial internationally.  

The Venezuelan Labor Ministry supports Federation of Industries (Fedeindustria) president, Miguel Angel Perez Abad, Confederation of Farmers and Ranchers president, Jose Agustin Campos and Businessmen for Venezuela president, Alejandro Uzcategui as business representatives.

The problem is that Fedecamaras has traditionally been chosen as the representative body of Venezuela's business sectors and the CTV as trade union representative.

This time new business sectors endorsed by the government seek 5 of 10 technical assistance slots at the ILO general assembly, which Fedecamaras rejects. The new groups claim that no group should be allowed to monopolize the representation of the business sector.

On the trade union level, the newly created National Workers Union (UNT), which consists of powerful unions that split from CTV,  are demanding an end to CTV domination at ILO general assemblies.