SYDNEY, Jan 15 Oil prices rose above $ 53 on Monday, as worries that OPEC could cut outpu

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SYDNEY, Jan 15 (Reuters) Oil prices rose above $53 on Monday, as worries that OPEC could cut output again to staunch a fund-led rout stoked a rebound from last week's 19-month low.

U.S. crude rose 32 cents to $53.31 a barrel in Globex electronic trading by 0059 GMT.

This extended gains of $1.11 on Friday, when investors covered short positions for fear of a surprise OPEC output cut announcement.

''Prices sank to quite low levels last week so the market is expecting some sort of reaction from OPEC,'' said Tobin Gorey, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank.

''It is possible that they (OPEC) will announce more cuts, I wouldn't rule that out, but what the market is going to be impressed by is compliance with the cuts,'' he added.

Floor trading at the New York Mercantile Exchange is closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but electronic markets remain open.

An up to 15 percent decline in oil prices in the last two weeks on fund selling and mild weather in the U.S. has rung alarm bells for OPEC members, which have been cutting output since November to halt crude's losses from a record high near $80 last July.

Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said on Saturday OPEC members were consulting one another on whether to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the declining prices.

''There are consultations, but no consensus for the moment (on whether to hold one),'' Khelil said.

A senior Iranian oil official echoed Khelil's comments on Sunday and said on the Oil Ministry's Web site that there was ''still no official decision on whether to hold an emergency meeting soon.'' But analysts said OPEC's battle to prevent prices falling further was growing more difficult with the approach of spring, the seasonal low point for oil demand.

''Warm weather will continue to ride through in the U.S. and their (OPEC's) previous cuts haven't even been implemented yet.

Given the build up in inventories, OPEC's task is now greater in trying to cut supplies,'' Gorey said.

Investors were also betting oil prices would fall further.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission data on Friday showed that speculators on the New York Mercantile Exchange shifted to a net short position for crude oil in the week ended Jan. 10.

It was the first time speculators were net short on crude since the week ending Nov. 7.

OPEC first pledged to implement a 1.2 million barrel cut from Nov. 1, and added another 500,000 barrels in cuts from Feb. 1, to shore up prices. Some ministers have previously said that prices should be kept above $60.

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