As the world's largest economy, the US plays a key role in oil markets, consuming nearly a quarter of global supplies.

The Vienna-based oil organization currently forecasts the country's oil demand to grow by 1 percent in 2010, after declining by 0.8 million barrels per day (bpd) last year.

"It is expected that the recovery will strengthen in the second half of the year; however the risk is high that the country's oil demand would slide back further," the report said.

The main question is whether the government in Washington manages to stimulate the economy and fight unemployment, OPEC said, forecasting that gross domestic product would rise only 0.4 percent in real terms above the pre-crisis level this year.

The group's experts said that the country's strong economic growth in the fourth quarter was largely fueled by inventories being restocked.

OPEC kept its global annual demand outlook nearly stable at 85.12 million bpd, with most of the growth in volume coming from China, as well as countries in North America, the Middle East and Asia.

On the supply side, the 11 members of the organization that are bound by output quotas strayed slightly further from their limits again in January, based on increases by Angola and Venezuela. Iraq, the 12th member state, is not bound by a quota.

Including Iraq, the group pumped 29.19 million bpd last month, which corresponds to a share of 34.1 percent of global crude oil supplies.

OPEC's basket price settled at $69.76 per barrel on Monday, down from its 15-month high of $80.29 in early January.