Top oil producers Saudi Arabia and Russia agree on lower prices 

The world's two top oil exporters, Saudi Arabia and Russia, have agreed on the need to bring down prices after benchmark Brent crude topped US$30 a barrel in London.

After a meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi and Russian Energy Minister Igor Iusufov stressed the "need to restore stability to the markets and make sure they do not rise to a level which could have a negative impact on world economic growth," the official Saudi Press Agency said.Advertisement A member of the Russian delegation also told reporters the talks were part of Riyadh's efforts to "bring prices back below 28 dollars a barrel".

Both sides were agreed that new steps would have to be taken to bring prices back within the target range, he said.

In a separate development, the President of OPEC has said that the oil cartel is ready to increase production by up to one million barrels a day if prices remain above US$28 a barrel by the middle of this month.

Oil prices have rallied sharply on fears that political turmoil in Venezuela will spur a supply crunch in the US and that a war on Iraq will deepen shortages.

Unless there is a sharp price decline, the cartel is on track to lift output after January 14 via its mechanism that stipulates supplies be raised by 500,000 bpd if prices for a basket of OPEC crudes stay over $28 a barrel for 20 days.