Saudi to lobby at Jeddah for action on speculation

RIYADH, June 21 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia will press consumer nations at an oil meeting in Jeddah this week to take action to curtail the speculation it sees as a major factor behind high oil prices, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

"Governments have a role in organising (oil) markets and structuring them in a way that prevents speculators behaving in a manner that has led oil prices to reach their current levels," Deputy Oil Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman was quoted as saying in the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat daily.

The prince was discussing a paper Saudi Arabia will present to an unprecedented meeting of consumer and producer countries in Jeddah on Sunday. He said the Saudi paper had been prepared in coordination with the oil producer cartel OPEC.

OPEC countries blame speculation, a weak dollar and political instability for record world oil prices. Consumer nations OPEC output increases would help tame prices.

Saudi Arabia, which has been lobbied by Western leaders including U.S. President George W. Bush to boost production, has said it will raise output to 9.7 million barrels per day in July.

(Reporting by Andrew Hammond, editing by Lin Noueihed)