CRUDE prices gained ground in Asian trade on Wednesday after slipping to three-year lows on continued demand worries, dealers said.

New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, gained 1.10 dollars to 48.06 dollars (S$109.35) a barrel.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday, the contract dropped 2.32 dollars to settle at 46.96, below 47 dollars for the first time since May 2005.

Brent North Sea crude for January delivery rose 1.06 dollars to 46.50 after settling down 2.53 at 45.44 on Tuesday in London.

At current levels, crude prices are down almost 100 dollars from record levels above 147 dollars reached in July.

Since their peaks, prices have steadily declined on a stream of bad economic news and evidence of falling demand for energy, analysts said.

On Monday, economists officially confirmed the United States - the world's biggest energy consumer - is in a recession, following the eurozone, Japan and other economies.

Dealers said underlying sentiment is expected to remain weak with the US economy and other industrialised nations in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

'The market has been focusing on the demand side,' said Gerard Burg, a minerals and energy economist with National Australia Bank in Melbourne.

'There is still a fear that the global economy is in deep trouble and the oil price is simply following that,' said Mr Adam Sieminski, an analyst at Deutsche Bank. -- AFP