OPEC pushes for cuts compliance, Libya says

TRIPOLI, Jan 21 (Reuters) OPEC members want full compliance with existing output cutbacks to correct an oil price slide but if that fails an extraordinary meeting will be needed, Libya's top oil official Shokri Ghanem said on Sunday.

''Until now there is no agreement on an extraordinary meeting,'' Ghanem said in brief remarks to Reuters, referring to recent calls from some member countries for a meeting to shore up sagging prices.

He added: ''We think that commitments with the (existing) cuts will lead to achieving balance in the market, but if not then we have to hold an extraordinary meeting before the decided (next) regular meeting in March.'' So far OPEC action has had limited impact in checking the oil market's sell-off and U.S. crude last week fell below a barrel for the first time in 20 months.

An OPEC monthly report said the 10 members involved in output curbs had pumped 26.785 million bpd in December, 111,000 bpd less than November, but still above a 26.3 million bpd target.

The group, excluding Iraq, agreed at meeting in the Qatari capital Doha in October to cut by 1.2 million bpd from Nov. 1.

At a further meeting in the Nigerian capital Abuja in December OPEC agreed to lower output by a further 500,000 bpd from February, lowering its supply target to 25.8 million bpd.

Ghanem added: ''We expect that the market will correct itself.

There is an insistence from all the member countries to implement the cuts decided in Doha and Abuja.'' OPEC's next scheduled meeting is in March, but a 17 percent drop in prices since the end of last year has provoked calls for an emergency meeting before then to discuss further action.

REUTERS SBA VC1909