Market full of oil, price trend "fake": Ahmadinejad

By Hashem Kalentari

ISFAHAN, Iran (Reuters) - The oil market is plentifully supplied and the rally to record high prices is "fake and imposed", Iran's president said on Tuesday, blaming a weak U.S. dollar which he said was being pushed down on purpose.

"At a time when the growth of consumption is lower than the growth of production and the market is full of oil, prices are rising and this trend is completely fake and imposed," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech.

"It is very clear that visible and invisible hands are controlling prices in a fake way with political and economic aims," he said when opening a meeting of the OPEC Fund for International Development in the central city of Isfahan.

With high fuel prices sparking protests worldwide, Iran's anti-U.S. president also took aim at high energy taxes in consumer nations. He said there was an "unfair" difference in income between energy exporting and importing countries.

Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, has repeatedly said the market is well-supplied and blames rising prices on speculation, a weak dollar and geopolitical tension.

The Islamic Republic is embroiled in a deepening standoff with Western powers over its nuclear plans, which the United States suspects is aimed at making bombs. Tehran denies this.

Iran has often said it sees no need for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to boost output, as the United States and other big oil consumers want.

"As you know the decrease in the dollar's value and the increase in energy prices are two sides of the same coin which are being introduced as factors behind the recent instability," said Ahmadinejad.