OPEC ministers turned down calls for extra output on Thursday, voicing concern that the weak US economy may cause oil prices to drop further from recent historic peaks above 100 dollars.
Most members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps 40 percent of world oil, said the cartel should maintain its production level at its official meeting in the Austrian capital on Friday.
A freeze would be a snub to the United States, the world's biggest energy consumer, whose President George W. Bush recently urged OPEC to hike output to help further reduce high oil prices that stunt economic growth and fuel inflation.
However, lower oil prices are not welcomed by crude producers as their income from exporting the commodity drops.
"We have no option now" but to hold our output target of 29.67 million oil barrels, Qatar's Minister of Energy and Industry, Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, said on arrival in Vienna.
"We are very concerned about the world economy (...) The American economy will (influence) oil prices," he told reporters.
By Thursday, the price of oil had slumped by about 10 percent since New York crude struck a record high of 100.09 dollars a barrel at the start of January.
Kuwait's acting oil minister, Mohammed Al-Aleem, told reporters that the 13-member OPEC was "a little worried about the impact of a slowdown or a recession in the United States" on oil prices.
"The price, for the time being, has been going a little bit down," he said.
"Within three weeks, it's been about 10 dollars. We have to see why, what the problem is, and whether it's going to continue at the same pace."
OPEC President and Algeria's Energy Minister Chakib Khelil indicated that the cartel could discuss at its meeting whether a hike would help to support the world economy.
Venezuela's Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Rafael Ramirez, said he would call for a cut in output at OPEC's scheduled meeting in March should prices continue to fall.
Meanwhile some members of OPEC were "more sensitive to political pressure," Khelil said Thursday, in an apparent reference to the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia which were more likely to listen to US complaints about high prices.
On Wednesday, OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude producer, voiced satisfaction at the present levels of crude supply and demand.
"The fundamentals are sound," Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi had told reporters, as he expressed his views on the current demand and supply situation for crude oil.
OPEC's meeting on Friday is an extraordinary get-together that was scheduled at the group's last official gathering on December 5 in Abu Dhabi.
There, OPEC decided against increasing production, insisting the market was well supplied and that high prices were caused by speculative activity, not a reaction to the demand and supply situation.
Ministers repeated this view in Vienna on Thursday.
OPEC comprises Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
Iraq is the only member without an output quota owing to unrest in the country, while analysts say OPEC is in fact producing above its official ceiling by about 180,000 barrels of oil each day.
