NEW YORK, 23 May 2004 — Group of Seven financial leaders were gathering here yesterday to press OPEC to boost oil production to safeguard the world recovery.

The soaring oil price and fears it could brake the world recovery overcast the weekend gathering of finance ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

US Treasury Secretary John Snow and his G-7 partners will dine at the landmark Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan ahead of formal talks today, with the main course likely to be a dissection of the oil markets and the economy.

In the run-up to the gathering here, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown stepped up the pressure on OPEC.

“I believe that it’s necessary in the next few days for OPEC to make an announcement that (oil) production will be raised, and we will continue to press them,” Brown told BBC television on Thursday.

But at an informal meeting in Amsterdam yesterday, oil ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries showed no such urgency, postponing any formal decision until June 3.

OPEC ministers were “deeply concerned” about the near-record oil price, organization President Purnomo Yusgiantoro told reporters.

But they refused to react formally to a Saudi proposal, made public on Friday, to boost OPEC output by more than two million barrels per day. “The decision will be made in Beirut,” said Yusgiantoro, referring to the organization’s next official meeting in Lebanon on June 3.

In any case, OPEC suggested it was powerless to cool the world oil market alone. High prices were a result of several factors, Yusgiantoro said. “Principal among them are gasoline bottlenecks .... and increased tensions in some regions of the world,” he said.

G-7 ministers, representing the world’s biggest consumers of oil, are expected to send a clear reply to OPEC.

On Friday, Brown penned a joint letter with French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and German Finance Minister Hans Eichel indicating the G-7’s intentions.

G-7 powers were meeting “to consider the world economy and express concern to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries about the impact of rising oil prices,” the ministers wrote.

Their host, the US treasury secretary, had described Saudi Arabia’s call for higher output as “welcome news” on Friday.

“We will do a lot better, and so will the world economy, at (oil) prices that are more moderate,” Snow told Fox television news.

Addressing students Saturday in Gambier, Ohio, Snow pointedly remarked on the European laggards.

“You are so much more fortunate than your counterparts across the globe - those graduating from universities today in France, Germany and Italy, for example, are entering into anemic economies where job creation is limited,” Snow said, according to a copy of his prepared speech.

The Europeans say they are determined to catch up. In their letter to the Financial Times, Brown, Sarkozy and Eichel pressed for Europe to pursue freer trade, more liberalized labor markets and pro-growth economic policies.

“In short, instead of squandering the moment when a reforming Europe can benefit from a world economic upturn, we should seize it to drive forward growth and job creation,” they said.