Asked about the possibility of larger Opec cuts, the minister told reporters: "I believe that it will be in the benefit of producing countries to reconsider their announced pledges."

"The cuts announced so far did not have the impact that we had expected. That is why we should reconsider the amount already pledged," he said.

Sheikh Saud later flew to Vienna for a meeting of the production monitoring committee of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Tuesday, a day ahead of an Opec ministerial meeting.

"Everyone is complaining...There are huge amounts of oil on the market and the stocks are very high," the Kuwaiti minister said.

He said the market situation was very bad and suggested stiffer measures were needed to restore prices.

"A shock is what the market might need because the situation is very bad,"Sheikh Saud said.

When asked if Kuwait was prepared to take a cut in excess of the 75,000 barrels per day (bpd) already pledged, he said: "If it will lead to an improvement in prices, then what is the harm...It is not a matter of production amounts, it is a matter of price." Sheikh Saud had earlier said the June pledges for cuts, effective July 1, would involve between 800,000 and one million bpd.

A senior Kuwait official earlier told Reuters that any cuts of less than one million bpd would have little impact on a highly sceptical market.

As part of a collective effort, Kuwait took a 125,000 bpd production cut effective from April 1, and then committed itself to the 75,000 bpd cut from July.

Kuwait has an Opec quota of 2.19 million bpd, which became effective in January, and controls almost 10 per cent of the world's proven oil reserves.Oil prices have been plumbing depths in recent months not seen for about a decade. North Sea Brent crude futures for August delivery traded at $13.17 a barrel at 0951GMT.

Meanwhile, Kuwait's Asian neighbour, Iran said that his country wanted output reductions of at least 10 per cent from Opec and non-Opec states.

The Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reported that Bijan Zanganeh, the Iranian oil minister met oil ministers from Opec-members Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and non-Opec Oman ahead of a meeting of Gulf Arab oil ministers in Riyadh, held on June 16.

"Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh is understood to have told his counterparts in those countries that Iran wanted an output reduction of at least 10 per cent by Opec and non-Opec producers concerned and seemed to indicate that a fulfilment of this target would be a condition for Iran's full cooperation with the cutback programme," it added.

In the last round of cuts by Opec agreed in June reductions amounted to about three per cent. An earlier deal on cutbacks hammered out in March outlined reductions of five to six per cent.

Members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries areto meet for their regular ministerial meeting on Wednesday to discuss the cutbacks and low oil prices.

At the June 16 Riyadh meeting, MEES said Saudi Arabia told other Gulf Arab states they needed to work on Opec-member Venezuela and non-member Mexico for more cuts if larger reductions were to be achieved.

"The Saudis are understood to have told their GCC colleagues at the Riyadh meeting that if they really want a larger reduction, they should set about persuading Venezuela and Mexico to raise their combined cutback commitment -- in which case Saudi Arabia would be ready to match them barrel for barrel," the newsletter said.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.