Blair calls for effort to cut oil prices

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for efforts to reduce oil prices but said the world’s biggest exporter Saudi Arabia was doing what it could to rein in prices.

Mr Blair also signalled oil prices were likely to be on the agenda of the G8 summit in Scotland this week. “Obviously we will discuss the world economy and oil prices are a significant and important part of that,” Mr Blair said during a brief visit to Saudi Arabia.

“The Saudis are increasing production and doing what they can. What we’ve got to make sure is we do our best to try to reduce the prices to a more acceptable level, but it’s being driven by high demand,” he said.

After oil hit a record of $60.95 a barrel last week, Canada said the G8 will broach the risks of high fuel costs hurting US economic growth or smothering the already sluggish economies of much of continental Europe and Japan.

Saudi Arabia has raised production in an effort to curb the high prices but says refining bottlenecks in the United States and market speculators were to blame for the price surge, not crude shortages.