Probability of U.S. recession growing: energy secretary

By Suleiman al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) - The probability of a U.S. economic recession is growing and high oil prices pose a significant problem for the world's largest energy consumer, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said on Thursday.

Bodman said global oil supplies were not as high as the United States would like but he stopped short of echoing President George W. Bush's call for OPEC to boost supply earlier this week.

"There are certainly signs that we are facing economic challenges and I think that the probability of a recession is now greater than it has been in the past," Bodman told reporters in Jordan on the first leg of a trip to the Middle East.

"In my view, there is some evidence that suggests that supplies are less than we would like to see," Bodman said.

On a separate trip to the Middle East this week, Bush urged the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase output at its February 1 meeting to help tame soaring oil prices and ease the threat of high energy costs on the economy.

Bodman said he had yet to speak to Bush about how OPEC's largest producer and most influential member, Saudi Arabia, had responded to the president's call for more oil.

OPEC's supply levels were a matter for the producer group to decide, but the potential damage to the economy and to oil demand of high prices made a case for an output boost, Bodman said.

"The greater the oil price, the greater the burden on the economies of the developed world and the greater the threat that there will be a collapse in demand due to a lack of economic activity," Bodman said.