Opec president Purnomo Yusgi-antoro blamed a "political premium" of 10-15 Us dollars a barrel for soaring oil prices Wednesday, saying the oil cartel is exceeding its supply quotas but the market is not responding.

Purnomo said Opec was concerned about the high oil prices but exceptional circumstances restricted its room to manoeuvre on the issue.

"According to our view based on the fundamentals -- supply and demand values -- the price should not be as high as what we see today," he told reporters at the

19th World Energy Congress in sydney.

"What we see is a political premium between 10-15 dollars per barrel."

Purnomo, who is also Indonesia's Energy Minister, cited market speculation and geo-political factors including unrest in the Iraqi city of Najaf and Russian government action against the country's largest oil producer Yukos, for the high oil price.

He expects prices to fall from current levels of more than 40 Us dollars by the end of the year, based on contracts exchanged on oil futures markets.

Asked to speculate on how much

the price could fall he replied: "Boy ... five dollars a barrel?"

In Asian trade Wednesday, oil prices continued to weaken as concerns over the possible impact of Hurricane Frances on the southern Us states which are home to major oil production and refinery facilities faded.

In early afternoon deals, New York's reference contract, light sweet crude for October delivery was at 43.22 Us dollars a barrel, down from the 43.31 dollars close Tuesday.

Purnomo also said the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries was likely to change its target band of 22 to 28 dollars a

barrel at a meeting in Vienna on september 15.

He refused to comment on where the revised band might be set but said it would reflect the impact of inflation and depreciation of the Us dollar since the current target band was set in 2000.

Purnomo previously told reporters at the congress that the Opec target band could be set at 26-34 Us dollars.

He was non-committal on whether this month's Opec meeting would authorise an increase in oil supply to force down prices, saying world supply was already exceeding demand by by 2.7 million barrels a day.