The dominant oil exporter in OPEC -- Saudi Arabia -- has suggested the production cuts agreed by member states last year to boost prices should be continued beyond their scheduled expiry at the end of March.

The Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, said that with oil prices up at around twenty-five dollars a barrel, it seemed the quota regime could be left unchanged for this year.

He was speaking after talks with his Venezuelan opposite number, Ali Rodriguez, in Amsterdam. OPEC's market monitoring committee is due to meet tomorrow in Vienna. Correspondents say Mr al-Naimi's stand appears more upbeat even than those of Iran and non-OPEC member Mexico, which have already said they see scope for a three-month extension of the current output cuts of over two-million barrels a day, which have helped boost prices from levels below ten-dollars.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service