The three oil-exporting countries that formed the Riyadh pact - Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and non-Opec Mexico - are likely to hold further talks about the still-weak world oil market in coming days, Opec sources said.

The sources said the talks are likely to take place while Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali Naimi is in the US. Naimi, who was in Houston for a meeting of the Board of Saudi Aramco, the state oil company, is scheduled to meet with US energy secretary Federico Pena in Washington, DC.

The proposed Opec-Non-Opec meeting comes as several Opec countries have called for further production cuts. Algerian oil minister Youcef Yousfi said Tuesday in London that the current cuts are `definitely not enough' to secure acceptable prices and that further cuts are needed, particularly over the next six months.

The previous Riyadh agreement, reached March 22 between Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico, led to a March 31 move by Opec to reduce output by 1.245 million barrels a day from April 1 to support weak oil prices. The Riyadh agreement sent the nearby crude oil futures contract soaring $1.90 to $16.51 a barrel, but prices have since fallen back as the market waits for word that OPEC will keep to its pledge to cut production.

The June crude contract ended Friday's session up 74 cents at $16.14, the first time the contract has settled above key technical resistance level of $16.00 since March 30. Products followed crude higher in sympathy, with the June heating oil contract up 157 points to 45.78, while the June gasoline contract rose 183 points to 5429.

Meanwhile, crude oil and product futures climbed higher at the New York Mercantile Exchange on hopes of a weekend Opec meeting and news of products pipeline problem in Texas.

Traders said the June crude contract surged after breaking through keytechnical resistance point at $15.75.

The rising market touched off stop-loss buying as it rose above $15.95, which then sent the market above another resistance level at $16.00.

After breaking through $16.00 resistance, more buy stops were triggered and the contract reached its intraday high of $16.20. Volume has been relatively strong, with about 100,000 contracts trading hands, while traders watched for more news about a meeting among Mexican, Venezuelan and Saudi Arabian oil ministers.

Traders said crude was given a boost when the June gasoline futures contract rose sharply on news of a pumping station explosion at a 100,000-barrel-a-day products pipeline in Texas.

The pipeline, operated by Coastal Corp, is running at unsubstantially reduced capacity, according to Coastal spokeswoman Vicki Guennewig.

However, a sources said the pipeline is running at two-thirds reduced capacity. "After the news on the pipeline hit, gasoline surged, bringing crude with it," a Nymex floor tradersaid.

It's unknown when the pipeline will be back at full capacity.

Traders said that the crude complex has also been supported by news from Iraq.

Iraq warned the UN Security Council of `grave consequences' if it doesn't lift economic sanctions, the Iraqi News Agency reported Friday.

The warning was spelled out in a open letter to the Security Council from Iraq's two top decision-making bodies, the Revolutionary Command Council and the Baath Party Command, who met Thursday under the chairmanship of President Saddam Hussein.