Iran's Oil Minister has said OPEC is prepared to accept Russia as a new member if Moscow is willing to join the oil producers' group.

"OPEC is prepared to admit Russia as a new member," Gholam-Hossein Nozari said Tuesday in the southern Iranian port of Mahshahr.

He noted that countries request membership in OPEC after studying their own interests.

Nozari, speaking in advance of an OPEC meeting in Vienna scheduled for March 15, again called for non-OPEC oil producers to join OPEC in order to more effectively control the market.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said in November that Moscow had prepared a draft memorandum on cooperation with OPEC.

In addition, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said that Moscow was seeking to synchronize investments and policies with OPEC.

Sunday Nozari urged non-OPEC oil producers to cooperate with the group, saying the organization will do its best to boost the market. He said that cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC crude producers was necessary in view of the current economic crisis.

The Iranian oil minister said the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would decide 'in regard to oil output' at its next week meeting after studying the oil market and the global economy.

"OPEC members have almost completely complied with recent OPEC cuts, in order to stabilize the crude market," IRNA quoted Nozari as saying.

Crude prices have sunk more than two-thirds since a July peak of USD $147 as a declining world economy decreases fuel consumption.

MVZ/JG