"We have to work between own experience and the new situation of the market," Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah told journalists here.

"We think we have to decrease our production ... for the second quarter," he said.

Sheikh Ahmad's remarks reflected OPEC's concern that oil demand will fall after winter, pushing prices down.

He said OPEC traditionally cut production in the second quarter but has not done so in the last three years because of increased demand from China and India.

Sheikh Ahmad was at the end of his visit to Beijing, where he held talks with Chinese officials about ensuring supplies to the world's fastest-growing energy user.

Before he left for China and Russia Wednesday, Sheikh Ahmad said oil prices are expected to remain stable and trade within a defined range, adding that the cartel's stocks could reach a 55-day reserve in the next three months.

OPEC's production quota stands at 28 million barrels per day (bpd) and it decided at a meeting in Kuwait on December 12 not to renew its offer for emergency extra output of two million bpd.

OPEC released a report five days ago saying that world demand for oil will increase by 1.9 percent in 2006 to 84.9 million bpd. China accounted for more than one fifth of the 2005 increase of 1.6 million bpd.

On Wednesday New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January, added 64 cents to close at 57.98 dollars a barrel ahead of the release of the US crude stocks report.

The price of oil hit an all-time high of 70.85 dollars per barrel in New York on August 30 following Hurricane Katrina, which devastated refining and crude production facilities along the Gulf Coast of the United States.

OPEC's members are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Nigeria, Libya, Indonesia, Algeria and Qatar.

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