BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 5: Tiny Kuwait, its oil industry rebuilt after the Persian Gulf War, is ready to try again to reclaim its pre-war status in OPEC, reports AP.

The emirate, rebounding from the damage caused by the Iraqi invasion tn 1990, will renew demands to pump more crude oil at a cartel meeting opening Tuesday In Geneva

A rebuff earlier in the year by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries appears to have strengthened the producer's resolve to fight for a higher oil output quota.

"Kuwait really feels it's Justi -fled In seeking that extra production," said Peter Bogin, Associate Director for oil markets at Cambridge Energy Research Associates in Parts. "They're going to go after ft in a big way."

Kuwaiti OU Minister All al-Baghll wants the cartel to let his country pump two million barrels of crude a day in the summer, up 400.000 barrels from Its current limit

Al-Baghll's insistence — although unsuccessful in the end — on a higher allotment at the group's last meeting 1n February snarled the bargaining for days.

"This time it could be worse," said Vahan Zanoyan, senior director of the Petroleum Finance Co in Washington

"Kuwaitis, he said, "feel they were promised that their case would be dealt with" at the upcoming meeting. "If there is resistance, they're going to light back.

Even so, analysts doubt Kuwait will get all the barrels it

They predict the cartel will bump Its current production celling of 23.6 million barrels a day up several hundred thousand barrels In the July-September period. Demand is forecast at about 24.2 million barrels a day then.

Demand for the group's oil tends to rise in summer when consumers in the United States and Europe gas up their cars for vacation driving.

In February, the dozen OPEC nations agreed to remove 1.7 million barrels of oil a day from the glutted markets to keep crude prices from crashing In spring when demand normally falls.

The producers have reduced output by more than a million barrels a day, pumping an estimated 24.1 million barrels a day at the end of April, according to the International Energy Agency.

In doing so. they have prevented a price collapse, although the average price of an OPEC marker Is more than three dollar a barrel under the target of 21 dollar per 42-gallon

barrel.

In the February accord, Kuwait agreed for the first time since the Gulf War to cap its oil output.

Its officials had pleaded for an exemption from production cuts, saying the emirate needed to pump as much as possible to earn money to pay off 50 billion dollar in costs for the war and reconstruction.

Al Baghll claimed after the last meeting that the others promised he would be given a big increase in production in the summer. But others said no such deal was made.

Kuwait would like to be even with the United Arab Emirates, which has an output limit of 2.2 million barrels a day tn spring. Kuwait was pumping some two million barrels a day before the Gulf crisis.

Its wartime enemy. Iraq, once a giant oil producer, has been barred by International sanctions from exporting crude since Its occupation of Kuwait.

OPEC nations, heavily dependent on oil revenues to fuel their economies, generally want to earn as much money as they can from oil sales.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s No one crude producer and the cartel's most Influential member. tends to favour moderate prices and often works to keep others from giving them a sharp push