Referring Iran?s atomic programme to the UN Security Council would send record oil prices higher still, Libya?s oil minister said yesterday ahead of an OPEC meeting that will keep oil output near maximum levels.

OPEC ministers have given unanimous support to holding group production near a 25-year high with prices approaching $70 a barrel and worries over supplies from Iran, Nigeria and Russia.

Forecasts for lower energy demand in spring have been pushed from the table as ministers grapple with the impact of political events beyond their control. Consumer nations are worried that high oil prices will harm their economies.

Asked by reporters what effect any decision to refer Iran to the Security Council would have on the oil price, Libyan Energy Minister, Fathi Omar Bin Shatwan said: ?A very big effect. Most effect now in the market is because of Iran, Nigeria and Iraq and others ? it?s not because of the fundamentals.?

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council agreed overnight in London that the UN?s nuclear watchdog, the International Energy Agency should report to the Council this week on what Iran must do to cooperate.

The dispute over Iran?s nuclear programme has raised the possibility of a disruption to exports from OPEC?s second biggest producer, through sanctions or Tehran withholding oil. Fellow OPEC member Venezuela, a major supplier of crude to the United States, has said it will support Iran.

Attacks on OPEC country Nigeria?s oil industry have cut deep into its exports. And once reliable energy supplier Russia has twice turned down its gas exports this year.

Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah has said OPEC faces a ?very complicated situation. In December we decided to come here and to cut but now we?re changing. I have learned a new lesson ? don?t predict.?

OPEC, which pumps over a third of the world?s oil, has been producing close to 30 million barrels per day for months but prices remain at their highest level in real terms for a quarter of a century. Yesterday, US crude stood at $68.50.

The cost of a barrel of oil has more than doubled in a two year rally fuelled by demand from the United States and the rapidly growing economies of China and India. Supply worries have added impetus. OPEC?s own economists forecast that demand in the world?s 85 million barrels per day oil market will drop by two million bpd in the second quarter when peak winter consumption has passed.

But OPEC President, Edmund Daukoru, Nigeria?s oil minister, said cutting output would only serve to force prices higher. OPEC?s Ministerial Monitoring Committee of Nigeria, Iran and Kuwait advised the full ministerial meeting yesterday to leave the production ceiling unchanged at 28 million bpd.