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Calls for leading oil producers to raise production to try and bring down soaring prices have intensified at a crucial meeting in Saudi Arabia.

The US, UK and other consumers urged producers to boost supply, blaming lack of capacity for the recent price surge.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said more production was needed to ease price "uncertainty" and "volatility".

Saudi Arabia blamed speculation, not lack of supply, for surging prices but said it was willing to raise output.

The world's largest oil producer has already announced plans to lift daily quotas to 9.7 million barrels by the end of July, an increase of about 500,000 barrels since May.

But, in an effort to calm worries over supply shortages, it said it would be prepared to pump more "if demand for such quantities materializes and our customers tell us they are needed".

Saudi officials also indicated they could raise its oil "cushion" - the spare production capacity it maintains - above the current 12.5 million barrels per day planned for the end of 2009.

"We are very concerned for consumers in all countries," Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz told the meeting in Jeddah, convened after prices rose 40% this year to close to $140.

"And we declare our readiness to meet any additional needs."

King Abdullah proposed that members of the Opec producers body could contribute $1bn to a fund to help poorer countries deal with spiralling energy costs.

Saudi Arabia would also offer $500m in loans to countries struggling with fuel shortages to promote energy projects, he added.

The BBC's Paul Wood in Jeddah said the Saudi measures would be welcomed but that it would be naive to assume they would have an instant impact on prices.

The meeting, attended by energy ministers from more than 30 countries as well as senior executives from the world's largest oil companies, is taking place amid fears that recent record oil prices are helping tip the US and other major economies towards recession. It is happening against a backdrop of protests against rising fuel costs around the world.

Addressing the meeting, Brown called for a "new deal" on global energy supplies to benefit both consumers and producers. Better information was needed on the current state of global oil supplies and future demand, he said, while oil producers must diversify beyond oil by investing in other sources of energy, including renewable projects.

He also called for "enhanced co-operation" between governments to reduce the global economy's dependence on oil.

"I urge all oil producers to rigorously break down old barriers standing in the way of new strategic initiatives," he said.

"We can make progress in easing the challenges which are facing so many countries in the months ahead."

Protester at rally in Manila, the Philippines (20.06.08)

High fuel prices have sparked protests in several countries

US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said rising demand, especially from countries like China and India, was growing faster than supply and that this was pushing prices up.

"I believe that most of us agree on one thing: Prices are too high at present," he said.

"And unless we act, the situation will remain unsustainable."

Analysts say recent increases in output by Opec members are unlikely to have much of an effect on the price, given that the world's daily oil production is about 80 million barrels.

"We are going to have to live with higher prices," Jan Rudolph, an economist with Global Insight, told the BBC.

Efforts to control the price received a further blow this week, following militant attacks on Shell and Chevron facilities in Nigeria which cut the country's output by more than 300,000 barrels a day.