The OPEC oil-producing cartel agreed to cut production by 1.5 million barrels per day from February 1st to stimulate flagging prices, ministers said yesterday.

Kuwaiti oil minister Sheikh Saud Nasser al-Sabah emerged from an informal gathering of ministers to detail the volume of the production cut, which amounts to more than 5 per cent of total output of OPEC member-states. Another minister, Abdullah al-Attiyah of Qatar, told reporters that further cuts could be in the pipeline.

"I am happy with this but maybe we will have another cut in March. We will have to see how the market reacts," said Mr al-Attiyah.

Oil-consuming countries had urged OPEC not to cut output for fear it would send prices spiralling, stoking inflation and threatening global economic growth. But OPEC officials said oil importers had nothing to worry about.

"I believe the price of crude will remain within the OPEC price band," OPEC's secretary-general, Mr Ali Rodriguez, said, referring to the 11-nation grouping's target price range of $22-$28 a barrel.

"It is a prudent measure because we will not send prices up too much, but we will ensure that they do not fall the way they fell consistently in the last few weeks of last year," he said.

Oil prices barely reacted to the widely expected OPEC decision. Reference Brent North Sea crude for March delivery was selling for $25.02 a barrel, from $25.06 shortly before the decision. Brent closed at $25.52 on Tuesday.

In New York, the light sweet crude February contract fell to $29.82 a barrel, from $30.29 at the previous close.