Brown says high oil price a risk to global economy

LONDON (Reuters) - Soaring global oil prices may damage the world economy without action to bring down prices and the country should reduce its dependence on oil in the long term, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Thursday.

Brown said the surge in oil prices over the last year to over $130 a barrel was a bigger problem than the crude crises of the 1970s.

"They pose a real risk to stability and a real risk of imposing damage on the global economy," he said as the government launched its renewable energy strategy in London.

"Our response to the oil shock, which is a bigger oil shock than the two previous oil shocks of the 1970s, must have two elements: First we need to facilitate a reduction in short term global oil prices through commitments to greater investment and indeed to greater transparency in the market place," he said.

"In the longer term, we must set out a strategy to reduce progressively over time our dependency on oil."

Representatives from major consuming countries, including Brown, met with oil producers in Saudi Arabia last weekend to try to rein in oil markets.

Brown has said London would host a follow up meeting to the Jeddah talks later this year.

(Reporting by Daniel Fineren; editing by James Jukwey)