"Inro needs money and is still waiting for funds to come in. I heard they have received some money from consuming countries, but not from producers," said one trader at a Singapore trading house.

Inro, which groups major rubber producing and consuming countries and acts as a market-stabilising body, recently called for 150 million ringgit from its members as funds to intervene in the market.

Members have 60 days to submit the funds called by Kuala Lumpur-based Inro, traders said.

Inro calculates rubber prices in an artificial currency with a value between the Malaysian cent and the Singapore cent. It sets the may-buy level at 183 cents and must-buy at 172 cents.

On September 9 the average was quoted at 170.29 cents.

"Inro will have to buy until the average price climbs back above the must-buy level.That's its responsibility," said another Singapore trader.

"Then it will stop and prices will fall again. Then Inro will buy small quantities again. Rubber producers will not appreciate this kind of action," the trader said.

So far this week, Inro has bought at least 6,000 tonnes of rubber from Indonesia and unknown quantities in the Malaysian and London markets.

Prices recovered slightly in regional markets after the intervention but most traders were sceptical.

"I am sure Inro will buy a few thousand tonnes a day from producing countries every day for some time, but the buying won't be long because Inro is not rich," another Singapore-based trader at a Japanese firm said.

Rubber producing countries, which have accused Inro of failing to carry out its functions, tried in vain in the past few months to ask Inro to raise its buying levels during Asia's financial crisis.

Malaysia and Thailand have said they would withdraw from Inro and urged other members to join the move.

Industry sources saidInro would not survive if Malaysia and Thailand left.

"But whether there is Inro or not does not mean much to the market. I think what producers will do means more," said the trader at the Japanese firm.

Thailand, the world's biggest rubber producer and exporter, is expected to cut its 2.2-million-tonne annual output by at least 10 per cent in a bid to control supplies, a senior Thai official told Reuters earlier this week.

Other rubber producers have also agreed to reduce output to help plunging prices, the official said after the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

ANRPC, which has met in August in Bangkok, is scheduled to hold its assembly in Vietnam in November.

Rubber producers will discuss countermeasures, including a break-off from Inro, for the bearish market and endorse concrete steps in respective countries at the November meeting.