Chavez : Venezuela or Iran Attack Could Double Oil Prices

Venezuela's president has warned that oil prices could more than double if the US attacks his country or Iran.

"If the United States was mad enough to attack Iran or aggress Venezuela again the price of a barrel of oil won't just reach $100 but even $200 dollars," he said.

In his opening address on Saturday (November 17, 2007) at a rare Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries summit in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital, Chavez, a fiery leftist and fiercely anti-US leader declared that the group should "assert itself as an active political agent".

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer, rebuffed Chavez's idea of Opec becoming an overtly political organisation.

Mr Chavez called for unity in Opec ranks, invoking geopolitical reasons.

"The basis of all aggression is oil. It is the underlying reason," Mr Chavez said, referring to the war in Iraq and US threats against Iran over its nuclear programme.

"Today, Opec stands strong. It is stronger than it has ever been in the past. Opec should set itself up as an active geopolitical agent."