Prices slipped in reaction to the Kuwaiti remarks, with April New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) crude futures last traded at $31.30 by 0820 GMT, 21 cents lower from their settlement in New York on last Friday.

Kuwait's oil minister Sheikh Saud Nasser al-Sabah said in a statement that the result of supply talks between Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and non-Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) Mexico was "a step in the right direction."

He said the results would "safeguard oil market stability, guarantee supplies to consuming nations and avoid price fluctuations which harm all nations." The oil ministers of Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico, architects of the output cut agreement, had met in London on Thursday to chart oil output policy after the output cut deal expires at the end of March.

By the end of Thursday's meeting, the three producers agreed on the need for more supplies to rebalance demand and supply. But they did not say when or how much the increase would be.

In the past, Kuwait's Sheikh Saud had strongly supported an extension of the output cuts beyond the end of March, saying that it would be a mistake to raise output in the second quarter, when demand begins to wane. But in the recent statement, he said Kuwait "seeks and supports any inclinations which lead to stabilising prices in a fashion which serves the common interests of oil producing and consuming states."

Opec expects output rise
Opec secretary general Rilwanu Lukman has also said that the organisation would definitely raise output but that the timing and the increase had to be carefully managed. "We have to be careful not to create a problem in the opposite direction. We don't want prices to go back to $10 a barrel," Rilwanu said.

The US crude prices have tripled in the past as a result of the Opec output cuts, reaching a nine-year high of $32.15. The output cuts, which have severely drained oil inventories, have created worries of a gasoline supply shortage in the U.S. Just ahead of the summer driving season. The US consumes a fifth of the world's oil.US gasoline futures on NYMEX struck a nine-and-a-half year high of $1.015 a gallon on Friday, the highest level since September 1990, when NYMEX gasoline hit $1.06 after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. On Monday, US gasoline futures were last traded at 97.10 cents a gallon.

Faced with the prospect of continued rising gasoline prices, US secretary Bill Richardson has called for Opec to swiftly boost production to ease tight global supplies.

Richardson also said releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPS) was still an option being considered by the White House to tackle low supplies. But he did not say when, or if, the reserve would be tapped.The US lawmakers have been urging the administration to release oil from the 570 million barrel reserve.