KUWAIT CITY. Feb 1: Kuwait's . oil minister said that the oil mairket is in a grave situation arid called on oil exporting countries to fully comply with agreed cuts to remedy it. a local dail y said today, reports AFP. ।

The issue is a grave one. It needs coo rdlnation and cooperation on all sides, and especially from those countries with huge t foreign debts who cannot replay them without oil revenues." Sheikh Saud Nasser Al-Sabah told Al-Watan.

"Some ail-exporting countries have taken a clear position agains t non-compliance of production .cuts by deciding not to attend an y future OPEC meeting until it i 5 confirmed that all members have fully complied with cuts. i

"If there is going to be an OPEC meeting, it will not take

place unless its alm is further reduction." added Sheikh Saud, whose country has been hard hit by the collapse of oil prices.

The minister, who set up a committee of experts last month to examine the role of foreign companies in developing Kuwait's oil resources, was confident that prices would rebound if output and global stock levels were reduced.

"Oil prices will not remain as they are now. because demand will increase and prices will rise once output production and global stock levels are reduced,” he said.

The danger from the decline in oil prices is real one, also for the United States, which has recently prompted the Senate to discuss the consequences for major oil companies."

Sheikh Saud said in December that the world's oil majors

would invest up to Seven billion dollars to develop the fields over the next five years to double their output to over 900,000 barrels a day.

Kuwait oil company chairman Abdul Latif Hamad Al-Torah said last week that the Emirate hopes to See the world's oil majors begin development of its northern fields by the end of this year.

Kuwait plans to intensify cooperation with foreign oil companies to boost production capacity to three million barrels a day by 2005, but will restrict their participation to a contractual and financial relationship.

The Emirate supplies around 10 per cent of the world's oil and has 100-year reserves at current production levels. The oil industry represents 90 per cent of the Gulf Arab state's exports.'