Venezuela and Iran support OPEC cuts: Chavez

Caracas, Jan 14: Venezuela and Iran will back cuts in OPECoutput to oversupplied world markets in order to support prices,Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said.

He blamed the United States, the archfoe of Tehran and Caracas,for undermining the significance of the OPEC cartel to bring down oilprices, which have tumbled 15 percent this year on an unusually mild USwinter.

''We agreed this afternoon to increase our coordinated efforts inOPEC and with the major oil producers outside OPEC to safeguard theprice of our main product,'' Chavez yesterday said at a meeting withIranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

''Today we know there is too much oil in the market and we willsupport decisions taken to cut production and safeguard the oilprice,'' he added.

He added the two countries had agreed to establish a 2 billiondollar fund for projects they are involved in across the developingworld.

Reuters>