JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia views skyrocketing oil prices as "abnormally high" and is willing to do what it can to bring them down, visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon said on Sunday.
Ban said his talks on Saturday with Saudi King Abdullah had focused on the link between the soaring world crude prices and the worsening food crisis as well as climate change.
"He acknowledged that the current oil prices are abnormally high due to speculative factors and some other national government policies," Ban told reporters before ending a 24-hour visit to the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
"He is willing to do what he can to (bring) the price of oil to adequate levels."
The Saudis, whose desert kingdom is the largest oil producer in OPEC, "seem to be considering very seriously how they can address this issue by increasing production," said the UN secretary general.
"I expect that they will take some concrete measures."
Media reports have suggested Riyadh plans to raise output next month by about half a million barrels a day to 10 million barrels, a possible sign it is becoming nervous about the political and economic effect of high prices.
Saudi Arabia is hosting on June 22 a summit for consumers and producers after oil prices struck a record high of nearly 140 dollars a barrel this month, stoking fears of surging global inflation and weaker economic growth.
Ban expressed hope the meeting would yield a productive outcome.
While reaping record profits, the Saudis are concerned record prices might dampen economic growth and lead to lower oil demand, as is the case in the United States and other developed countries, The New York Times reported.
It said the high prices are also making alternative fuels more viable, threatening the long-term prospects of the oil-based economy of Saudi Arabia, which is currently pumping 9.45 million barrels a day.
OPEC on Friday cut its 2008 estimate of growth in world oil demand, as high prices and slower economic growth put a brake on demand in major industrialised countries, the United States in particular.
Global oil demand was now projected to rise by 1.28 percent in 2008, it said in its June monthly report.
Oil prices -- which have witnessed a fivefold jump since 2003 -- fell back on Friday to just under 135 dollars a barrel.
The Group of Eight (G8) finance chiefs from major industrialised nations have called for an investigation by the International Monetary Fund into the wild swings in energy prices.
Runaway oil prices as well as high food prices pose "a serious challenge to stable growth worldwide" and may worsen poverty and stoke global inflation, the G8 said in a statement capping two days of talks on Saturday in Osaka, Japan.
Ban also conveyed to the Saudi king the concern expressed by several world leaders, notably at the Rome food summit earlier this month, about the impact of soaring oil prices on global food security.
"I am confident that he shares this concern," Ban said, adding that King Abdullah felt that other factors were behind the surge in food prices.
Ban said he told King Abdullah that high food prices were crippling the ability of least developing countries to implement the poverty-reduction Millenium Development Goals.
He also commended the king for his initiative to invest in developing countries to boost agriculture productivity and encouraged other countries to do the same.
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