TEHERAN - IRAN, Opec's number two oil producer, favours a cut in crude production of 1.0 to 1.5 million barrels per day when the oil cartel meets in Cairo later this month, state television reported on Saturday.

'It is best that at the urgent meeting in Cairo a decision be made for another decrease of one million to 1.5 million barrels per day,' Iran's Opec representative Mohammad Ali Khatibi was quoted as saying on the state broadcaster's website.

'Thus, a balance between supply and demand is reached,' Mr Khatibi said, adding that the extent of any potential cutbacks would depend on whether the global financial crisis deepened or not.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel is scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting on November 29 in Cairo amid speculation the member nations will agree to cut output in a bid to boost plunging oil prices.

Prices of crude have collapsed by about two-thirds since striking record peaks above 147 dollars (S$223.38) in July on concern that a prolonged global recession could slam the brakes on energy demand.

That, in turn, has sparked alarm among the Opec cartel, whose member nations pump 40 per cent of the world's crude supplies, because their oil revenues have been slashed.

Opec agreed on October 24 to reduce production by 1.5 million barrels a day from November 1, but prices have continued to slide since then. -- AFP