Iran Wants OPEC Price Boost

Iran's vice-president on Thursday called on oil-producing countries to boost cooperation to stabilise crude prices during a visit to fellow OPEC member Algeria, Algerian state news agency APS reported.

Producers need to intensify cooperation to "stabilise crude prices in the world market and cope with a conspiracy being plotted against producing countries and in which some Muslim countries are involved," APS quoted Eshaq Jahangiri as saying.

Jahangiri was speaking at a meeting of the Algerian-Iranian cooperation joint commission.

Jahangiri's remarks came a day after Algerian Energy Minister Salah Khebri said his country and Iran share the "same position" on defending the interests of oil-exporting nations.

Algeria and Iran have been among the OPEC members that have been unsuccessfully urging the group to cut output.

Khebri also said OPEC had been "ignoring" the collective interests of its member states.

Reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed