UPDATE 3-IEA, OPEC differ on 2008 oil demand outlook

(Recasts with OPEC demand outlook), adds details)

By Alex Lawler

LONDON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - OPEC and major oil consumers on Friday presented sharply diverging views on the prospects for world oil demand next year as fallout from the credit crunch clouds the economic outlook.

The gap between forecasts from OPEC and the International Energy Agency underscores the reluctance of the producer group to raise output formally even after a surge in oil prices to a record high near $100 last month.

"Prospects for 2008 are increasingly clouded by the expected slowdown in the U.S. economy," OPEC's Vienna-based economists said in the group's Monthly Oil Market Report for December.

"The improving geopolitical situation and slowing economic outlook should help to further ease the pressure on the market."

The IEA, adviser to 27 industrialised countries, earlier on Friday was more upbeat, saying global demand will rise by 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) next year, up 200,000 bpd from its previous forecast.

"A lot of this demand is in the non-OECD countries, where we don't have any downgrades in economic growth forecasts," said Lawrence Eagles, head of the IEA's Oil Industry and Markets division.

But OPEC, source of more than a third of the world's oil, predicted growth of just 1.3 million bpd, unchanged from the previous forecast, said there were "considerable downside risks" to the economic outlook.