OPEC to try to head off possible price-cut war

OPEC will try to snuff out a potential price-cutting war among some of its 13 members at a meeting next Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, oil industry sources say. With world oil demand still sharply depressed, OPEC is no longer able to hit the consumer with stinging price increases. Instead, it is on the defensive in a buyers' market.

African oil producers are jockeying for place in the shrunken oil market, although market analysts say Saudi Arabia could solve the African problem by trimming its huge output. But the Saudis are campaigning to force down the above-average prices of Libya and Algeria, the traditional OPEC militants.