Oil holds above $61, looks to OPEC for direction

LONDON, Sep 26 (Reuters) Oil held above on Tuesday after rebounding from a six-month low as dealers focused on whether OPEC might trim output should prices fall further.

U.S. crude eased 35 cents at .10 a barrel by 1400 GMT, while London Brent slipped 57 cents to .23 a barrel.

Oil prices rebounded on Monday, settling up 90 cents, after the market briefly slipped below the psychologically important level earlier in the session.

''The general sentiment is that if prices fall further, OPEC might decide to come in and cut its quota,'' said Andrew Harrington, an industry analyst at ANZ.

''Given the language that some OPEC members are using, the market is interpreting that a price below would be a trigger point for the group to act,'' he added.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps more than a third of the world's oil, is concerned about a drop in oil prices but has no plans to call an emergency meeting ahead of its scheduled Dec. 14 meeting in Nigeria, OPEC sources said on Monday.

OPEC has avoided setting a target oil price to defend. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, who steers the policy of the world's biggest exporter, said last week that prices were ''reasonable.'' Saudi Arabia's Monetary Authority Vice Governor Muhammad Al-Jasser added on Tuesday that oil prices at remained ''very healthy.'' But Iran's Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hameneh has said he does not want to see the price for OPEC's basket of crude grades drop below , which equates to U.S. crude at roughly .

U.S. crude has tumbled around 20 percent since its .40-peak in mid-July, taking back virtually all of this year's gains, on easing Middle East tensions, ample fuel stocks and slowing U.S. economic growth.

A preliminary Reuters poll ahead of Wednesday's data found that U.S. stocks of distillates, which include heating fuel, likely rose 2.2 million barrels last week. Inventories already stand at their highest level since January 1999.

Crude oil supplies likely slipped 1.7 million barrels last week, while gasoline stocks edged 500,000 barrels higher, the survey said.

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