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SINGAPORE, July 31 (Reuters) Oil prices slipped below $73 a barrel on Monday as hopes grew for a ceasefire in the Middle East and Nigerian output looked set to improve after attackers vacated a flow station.

U.S. crude for September delivery fell 32 cents to $72.91 a barrel by 0814 GMT, dipping as low as $72.88 after a $1.30 fall on Friday, partly due to data showing that U.S. economic growth had slowed to 2.5 percent in the second quarter.

London ICE Brent crude lost 28 cents to $73.11.

Dealers took profits on Friday amid apparently brighter prospects for a truce in the Middle East that would end a 20-day war traders fear might draw in neighbouring oil producers like Syria or Iran, both supporters of the Hizbollah guerrillas.

Sunday's Israeli air strike on the southern village of Qana that killed at least 54 Lebanese civilians, including 37 children, has intensified world pressure for an immediate halt to the fighting and fuelled more anger across the Arab world.

On Monday U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who aborted a planned trip to Beirut after the bombing, said a ceasefire could be forged this week.

''This morning, as I head back to Washington, I take with me an emerging consensus on what is necessary for both an urgent ceasefire and lasting settlement. I am convinced we can achieve both this week,'' she told reporters in Jerusalem.

World leaders deplored the attack on Lebanon.

Israel has suspended its aerial bombardment of southern Lebanon for 48 hours to allow for an investigation into the attack and will co-ordinate with the United Nations to allow a 24-hour window for residents to leave the area if they wish.

NIGERIA RETURNING Prospects for a recovery in Nigerian production grew on Monday after the police commissioner of Bayelsa state said attackers have vacated an Agip oil flow station and released all hostages they were holding there.

A spokesman for Agip declined to comment and there was no word on when operations at the Ogbainbiri flow station might resume. Agip's parent company, Italy's Eni, said the attack last Tuesday had caused a ''significant decrease'' in output.

Output in the world's eighth-biggest exporter has been cut by more than one-quarter due to militants attacks.

Royal Dutch Shell, the country's biggest foreign producer and most heavily affected, said it did not expect a significant recovery in output before the end of the year.

Supplies also appeared set to improve from Iraq after repairs to its oil pipeline to Turkey, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said at the weekend. A senior ministry source said the flow, shut off since a new bout of sabotage on July 9, should start in a few days.

The latest demand signals from leading consumers added to the market's downbeat sentiment, with the U.S. economy growing in the second quarter at less than half the 5.6 percent rate registered in the first quarter, raising fears of lower oil demand growth.

In Japan, the world's third-largest oil user, fuel sales slumped 7.1 percent in June from a year ago as poor weather and higher pump prices cut seasonal gasoline demand.

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