Opec members warned they won't raise output if it hurts their markets

The move is one of several options being discussed at a two-day meeting in Vienna that began on Monday.

UK Chancellor Gordon Brown has accused Opec of failing to match supplies with demand as oil consumption increases.

Opec warned that while it will try to ease prices, it is not willing to hurt its markets by creating an oil surplus.

Sky high

Concerns about the effect of surging oil prices have continued despite crude falling back from its recent record of $70.85 a barrel to $63.

There has been speculation that Opec would agree to raise its daily output by 500,000 barrels to help calm prices that were pushed to record levels by Hurricane Katrina.

Production capacity is unlikely to grow enough to outpace future growth in consumption International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook

However, Opec president Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah said there was support for keeping production quotas unchanged, but making 2 million extra barrels of daily output available when needed by the market.

Some member countries such as Venezuela - while backing increased output - doubt whether extra production will ease high fuel prices, arguing that the main problem is a lack of refining capacity.

Bottlenecks

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that global investment in production and refining capacity will not be sufficient to stop petrol and other fuel prices rising further over the next five years.

The Financial Times reported that the IMF - in a draft of its World Economic Outlook due to be published on Wednesday - said "production capacity is unlikely to grow enough to outpace future growth in consumption and create adequate spare capacity".

Many US refineries were out of action

According to the FT, the IMF will say that many firms are only willing to invest in projects that would still be profitable if crude prices fell as low as $20 a barrel.

Opec delegates will look at a range of proposals including increasing output by another 500,000 million barrels a day (bpd), a hike of 2-3.5% above the current 28 million barrels per day.

However, many Opec members are worried this would give too much importance to the demands of consumer countries.

'No buyer'

"There are fears in the oil markets of the continued supplying of markets with crude oil although there's a big surplus; there are quantities that the market cannot absorb, there is no buyer," said Sheikh Ahmad, who is also Kuwait's oil minister.

He added that "OPEC is keen...to make the markets more comfortable. We will do what we can at this meeting".

US consultancy PFC Energy said political calls for increased output had to be balanced "by market reasons not to do so".

Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Edmund Daukoru said on Sunday that supply and demand were balanced.