Unilateral Saudi output boost "wrong": Iran official

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's OPEC governor said any unilateral output increase by Saudi Arabia would be wrong, the website of Iran's state broadcaster reported on Tuesday.

"If Saudi Arabia acts to increase its output unilaterally it is a wrong thing," Mohammad Ali Khatibi was quoted as saying. "Any output increase should be ratified in this organization's (OPEC's) ministerial meeting."

Saudi Arabia plans to lift output to 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in July, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said on Sunday after meeting Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi.

That would be a rise of 550,000 bpd or over 6 percent since May and would take Saudi crude output to its highest monthly rate since August 1981, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.

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

"Oil producers all agree that the oil market is saturated," Khatibi said.

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

(Reporting by Zahra Hosseinian; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by James Jukwey)

((Tehran newsroom +98 21 8820 8770, Fredrik.Dahl@reuters.com)