Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said the cut was part of Iran's planned crude reduction of 199,000 bpd, the official IRNA news agency reported.

'Part of the output cut will apply to spot sales and one of the clients in this regard was Total,' Mr Nozari said, without giving the overall size of Total's current purchases from Iran.

'Other clients of the National Iranian Oil Company will gradually be informed of the cut,' he added.

At an emergency meeting in Vienna last Friday, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) agreed to reduce output by 1.5 million barrels a day to 27.3 million bpd from Nov 1 in an attempt to prevent prices falling further.

Oil reached a record of US$147 dollars a barrel in Jul, but prices have since fallen by more than half.

Iran is the Opec's second largest exporter and its economy is heavily dependent on oil and gas income. --AFP