Kuwait wants oil price above $60

By Rania El Gamal

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait wants to see the price of oil stay above $60 a barrel, the OPEC member's oil minister said on Sunday.

"We will be watching the market very closely," Kuwait's Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah told reporters at parliament. "We would not like to see the price go below a certain level so it at least meets our budgetary requirements."

When asked what that level was, Sheikh Ahmad said "$60, at least for Kuwait."

U.S. crude slipped to a four-week low of $65.63 a barrel on Friday as the jobless rate in the United States rose to a 26-year high.

Crude fell nearly $8 in four days last week from an eight-month peak of $73.38, on signs the economy of the world's top energy consumer was still struggling.

Speculation and changes in the strength of the dollar were playing a large part in oil price volatility, Sheikh Ahmad said.

Last week, the Gulf Arab state's oil minister said a price over $100 a barrel would hurt the global economy.