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Kuwait oil policy not aimed at harming world

KUWAIT: Kuwait's foreign minister and top oil official said on Sunday the OPEC member was eager to strike a balance on oil markets which would not harm the world economy or deprive petroleum exporters.

"We do not want to hurt the world, or hurt ourselves," Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who is also first deputy prime minister, told reporters before leaving for Cairo.

The sheikh also heads Kuwait's Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) - the country's highest oil decision-making body.

"I regret that you pose your question only to Kuwait," said Sheikh Sabah when asked about attacks in the United States against his country for adopting a hawkish stand on the future of a global oil output cuts accord which expires end-March.

"There is no pressure on Kuwait but the pressure is on the whole of OPEC and Kuwait is one of the members. (Gulf Arab) oil ministers will meet in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia on Wednesday) and our decision will emerge after that," added Sheikh Sabah.

OPEC members Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar are due to meet in the kingdom along with small producers Oman and Bahrain ahead of OPEC's ministerial meeting in Vienna in March which will decide the next step on export policy.

OPEC oil producers have come under mounting pressure to ease supply restrictions from huge markets such as the United States, the world's largest consumer.

U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is due in Kuwait in Thursday as part of a tour of exporters to present Washington's view on oil prices that have risen threefold from record lows a year ago.

Kuwait's Oil Minister Sheikh Saud Nasser al-Sabah, who served as ambssador to Washington during the 1991 Gulf War, has long called for an extension in the duration of supply restrictions.

Several Gulf oil officials have said they were hoping their oil policy would not become an election issue in the American presidential campaign.-Reuters