Iran's Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said on Sunday that the non-OPEC crude producers had agreed to cut their oil production, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Nozari, who was addressing the correspondents on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of 13th International Oil and Gas Conference in Tehran, said that "non-OPEC crude producers including Russia" had agreed to cut their oil production "to support the decisions of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)."

Earlier on Sunday, Iran said that oil market is oversupplied by 2 million barrels per day (bpd) after OPEC deferred a decision on a new output cut.

"Market assessments indicate that the market has around 2 million bpd of oversupply," Nozari was quoted as saying by Iran's satellite Press TV.

OPEC announced in Cairo on Saturday that it would maintain the current crude oil output until next month's meeting in Algeria.

OPEC President Chakib Khelil, who is also Algeria's energy and mines minister, made the remarks after a consultative ministerial meeting of the group to discuss ways to shore up the oil prices.

The ministers agreed to take any additional action to balance supply and demand and achieve market stability, Khelil said, adding that the oil cartel was concerned about the continued deterioration of the world economy and its impact on oil demand.

OPEC, which supplies about 40 percent of the global oil output, believed oil demand would be affected significantly amid concerns of world economic recession in the first half of next year.

"In the first quarter of next year we are probably going to have a decline in demand," Khelil said.

In recent months, the oil prices have dropped sharply. On Friday, it stood at around US$54 a barrel, declining by some 60 percent from over US$147 a barrel in mid-July.

OPEC had cut its oil output by 1.5 million bpd in October and is to discuss further cut at the upcoming ministerial meeting in the western Algerian town of Oran. Iran has also proposed another cut in oil output by around 1 million bpd.

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2008)