AAJ TV : Pakistan Ki Awaz

LONDON : Oil prices rose further on Tuesday after recent sharp losses that came against a background of weak energy demand.

New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, was up 42 cents to 72.31 dollars a barrel at 1145 GMT.

Brent North Sea crude for March gained 52 cents to 70.63 dollars per barrel.

Oil prices had recovered slightly on Monday after a massive sell-down last week triggered by weak US jobs data and debt problems in Europe.

"The outlook in Europe remains muddled by investor concerns over the ability of Greece, Spain and Portugal to handle their debts," said Victor Shum, an analyst with global energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz.

"These concerns on top of the ongoing weak demand in the United States will keep pressure on oil prices."

Reports that the debt and deficit problems of Greece, Spain and Portugal -- all of which belong to the 16-nation eurozone -- will be be high on the agenda at a key EU meeting on Thursday helped to support financial markets.

But investors remain pessimistic about the global economic recovery, especially after recent official data showed the US economy lost 20,000 jobs in January.

"There is very little of substance emanating from policymakers to lend a sense of optimism to market participants," said Mike Fitzpatrick of MF Global.

"Under such circumstances, pessimism about the pace and sustainability of recovery must necessarily increase," he said, noting that a recent meeting of finance ministers of the Group of Seven industrialized nations had not led to any concrete actions to spur recovery.

Eurozone finance chiefs sought to reassure their G7 counterparts on Greece's deepening debt troubles during the weekend meeting in Canada, but traders looking for any signal of a rescue plan were disappointed, analysts said.

Oil prices also won a slight reprieve amid unusually cold weather in the United States.

The mid-Atlantic region braced for a new winter storm this week after digging out from a weekend blizzard.

"So far, oil market fundamentals have been on a gradually improving trendline, and the recent bout of cold weather is likely to speed up that process of correction further," Barclays Capital analysts said in a note to clients.

"In fact, the advent of the powerful storm across the US mid-Atlantic over the weekend has provided some support to prices."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2010