| Chavez: Venezuela, Iran support OPEC output cuts |
CARACAS, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela and Iran will support OPEC output cuts to shore up world oil prices, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday.
"We agreed this afternoon to boost our coordinated forces within OPEC and with the major oil producers outside OPEC to safeguard the price of our product (oil)," Chavez said when meeting with his visiting Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Noting the oversupplied world markets, Chavez said both Venezuela and Iran would support OPEC's decision to cut production and to bolster oil prices.
World oil prices have witnessed a fall of about 15 percent since the beginning of this year due to fund selling and unusually mild winter in the world's major energy consumers, arousing concerns in OPEC about a further drop in prices.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting countries (OPEC) is likely to hold an emergency meeting later this month for discussion on further production cuts if necessary, OPEC officials were quoted by local media as saying.
The oil cartel last November cut its production by 1.2 million barrels per day, and in December it decided to increase the reduction to 1.7 million barrels per day from this year's February to support prices.
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