Oil climbed towards $70 a barrel yesterday, supported by Iran pressing ahead with its atomic work and Nigeria’s prolonged supply outages.

London Brent crude currently more representative of the global market than US oil, rose 35 cents to $69.77 by 09.08 GMT, gaining some ground lost after profit-taking knocked 85 cents off prices on Friday. Worries over US gasoline supplies had pushed prices beyond $70 a barrel on Thursday. S.crude was up 26 cents at $65.20

“The market would continue to look out for developments in Iran and Nigeria, which would offer some support to prices,” said David Moore, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

A senior Iranian official said on Saturday the country has started building its first domestically made atomic power plant – a move which could deepen a standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme, which the West fears is aimed at making weapons.

Tehran says it only wants to produce electricity.

“In the next decade Iran will be one of the most talked-about countries in the world regarding domestic nuclear energy,” Mohammad Saeedi of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.