EU calls for increase in oil supply

EUROPEAN ministers have urged the oil-producing countries to boost supplies rapidly to combat soaring fuel bills and have told oil companies to reinvest more of their vast profits in exploration and refining.

After chairing a meeting of European Union finance ministers in Manchester, British Chancellor Gordon Brown called on OPEC states to raise production by half a million barrels per day ahead of its September 19 meeting.

"This global problem needs global solutions," Brown said, highlighting estimates that, beyond the immediate threat to economic growth from world oil prices of nearly $70 a barrel, oil demand could rise 50% in the next 20 years.