Bush hopes for Saudi help on oil prices

Oil-producing countries may step up output to ease pressure on world prices, US President George Bush said today.

After talking with Saudi King Abdullah, he hopes OPEC will authorise an increase in oil production.

A White House spokeswoman said Mr Bush brought up the subject of high oil prices, and their negative effect on world economies, after having dinner with the king in Saudi Arabia.

“The president said there’s a hope, as a result of these conversations, that OPEC would be encouraged to authorise an increase in production,” she said.

The president reiterated the issue of oil supply being tight in the face of rising demand around the world, especially in India and China.

“This is not a situation that is going to be solved overnight, and that’s why the president has been pursuing aggressively alternative and renewable forms of energy,” the spokeswoman said.

Mr Bush arrived in Sharm el-Sheik today to be greeted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the final stop in his eight-day Middle East trip.

Renewed peace talks will be a main topic of discussions between the two leaders. Egypt, one of only two Arab states to agree peace with Israel, had urged Mr Bush to do more to resolve the Palestinian conflict with Israel.

But there were demonstrations against the visit in Cairo yesterday by Egypt’s most powerful opposition group, the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

“We as Egyptian citizens meet today on behalf of the Egyptian people, regardless of the official Egyptian stance,” in hosting Bush, said Mohammed El Belgati, a representative of the Brotherhood.

“We totally refuse this visit because George W. Bush only brought destruction, killing, distress and displacing in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine.”

The demonstration was small, but the Muslim Brotherhood is popular. It has outlasted a secular opposition group called Kifaya, or “Enough,” that flowered three years ago but is now in disarray.

Mr Mubarak has ruled Egypt for more than 25 years and has no designated successor, although critics claim he is rigging the political system to favour his son, Gamal.

Authorities have imprisoned hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members in recent months, and last year an Egyptian court sentenced the editors of four outspoken tabloids to a year in prison for defaming Mr Mubarak.