Kuwaiti crude was traded on Friday at 57.92 U.S. dollars per barrel, registering a new record high in the oil-rich kingdom, the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation ( KPC) said on Saturday.

Friday's price was 3.34 dollars up from 54.58 dollars last Friday, one cent higher than the previous record high of 57.91 dollars registered on Aug. 31, 2005, KPC said.

Kuwaiti crude oil price reached 56.72 dollars per barrel on Thursday and 56.91 dollars on Wednesday.

Kuwait is a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The kingdom has about 99 billion barrels of oil reserves, accounting for one tenth of the world's proven crude reserves.

Meanwhile, price of light sweet crude for delivery in February hit 68.35 dollars a barrel in New York and the price of Brent North Sea crude for March delivery reached 66.43 dollars a barrel in London on Friday.

Friday's hike of oil price came amid rising international pressure on Iran, another key OPEC member, over its nuclear program, a fresh threat from the al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden to wage more attacks on the United States and violence threats in Nigeria.

In addition, the increase of oil price is also partly caused by an earlier OPEC report, which predicts rising demand for oil in 2006.

OPEC, which accounts for 40 percent of total world oil production, currently has an output quota of about 27 million barrels per day.

Source: Xinhua