A senior Chinese economic official said the situation in the Middle East and oil speculation, and not China's growing oil demand, are to be blamed for soaring oil prices.

Zhang Guobao, deputy minister in charge of the State Development and Reform Commission, was quoted as saying that it is not accurate to blame China's mounting oil demand for the increasing oil prices, the "Beijing Morning Post" reported Thursday.

Zhang said China's net crude oil imports totaled 86 million tons in 2003, or 1.72 million barrels a day, a tiny part of the world's overall oil supplies.

That represents only 7.3 percent of oil cartel OPEC's existing export quotas of 23.5 million barrels per day.

China's demand for crude oil is on the rise, but it is not sufficient to influence global oil prices, said Zhang.

He called on oil exporters to increase production so that international oil speculators will not be able to manipulate high oil prices.