'Our position for the past ten-plus years has been that we have to manage oil production,' Mr Chavez told AFP, ahead of an Oct 24 gathering in Vienna of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).

Opec was expected to announce at the ministerial meeting that it is cutting oil output to help lift crude prices that have dived 55 per cent since reaching record highs in July, as a global economic slowdown has slashed demand.

'Now that the prices are coming down, we are going to take (to Opec) the proposal of cutting production,' Mr Chavez said during a visit to an oil pipeline project in Cumana in northeast Venezuela.

The 12-nation cartel, which accounts for about 40 per cent of the world's oil, last week cut its estimate for growth in demand for oil this year and 2009 largely because of an 'excessive' easing of demand in the United States.

For 2008, it cut its estimate for growth in demand by 330,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 550,000 bpd, giving average total demand of about 86.5 million bpd.

For 2009, it cut its forecast by 100,000 bpd to 800,000 bpd to put average total demand at 87.2 million barrels per day. -- AFP