VIENNA (AFP) - OPEC warned Tuesday that "sustained higher energy prices may pose a risk to growth" as it reported global oil demand growing by almost one million barrels per day (bpd) in 2005.

"With full preliminary figures available for the first time for the whole of 2005, global oil demand appears to have grown by almost one million bpd or 1.2 percent to average 83.1 million bpd during 2005," the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its monthly report on oil markets. OPEC said that oil prices were under "upward pressure in March" and warned of supply shortages of gasoline for the coming warm months in the northern hemisphere that could "provide some support for crude prices."

"Sustained higher energy prices may pose a risk to growth, especially in economies where consumer budgets face pressure from rising interest rates," OPEC said. The 11-nation cartel said the U.S. economy "is expected to slow later in 2006 and the world economy will become more dependent upon demand generated in Asia and Europe."

"Prospects for Europe are uncertain" as "political uncertainty may inhibit much needed labor market restructuring, keeping unemployment at high levels and reinforcing the reluctance of households to spend," OPEC said.

OPEC said world demand for oil would grow in 2006 "by 1.4 million bpd or 1.7 percent to average 84.5 million bpd, marginally lower with respect to the growth estimate" from March.

This is due "to the disappointing consumption in the USA over the first three months of 2006 partially offset by an above trend growth in Western Europe, especially in January," OPEC said.

And "China's apparent demand for the first quarter of 2006, preliminary trade and production figures point to a very volatile consumption with demand appearing to have surged by around 20 percent in January but only increased by three percent in February," OPEC said.

OPEC said its crude production was down 200,000 bpd in March from the previous month, at an average of 29.6 bpd for March.

Global oil markets are well-supplied with crude, OPEC stressed Tuesday, insisting that despite the current surge in prices there was no immediate need for the cartel to ramp up production.

"The key thing is that these developments are not the result of a lack of oil on the market," OPEC communications director Omar Farouk Ibrahim told AFP. "If the market was not well-supplied then maybe the need for OPEC to pump more (oil) immediately to calm the markets would arise. But everybody would tell you that the markets are well-supplied."

The price of New York's light sweet crude hit a historic peak of 70.88 dollars per barrel Tuesday as the market fretted over possible military conflict between the United States and Iran.

It beat the previous record 70.85 dollars, reached on August 30, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina had battered oil facilities on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Earlier Tuesday, the price of Brent North Sea crude oil hit a record 72.20 dollars per barrel. Ibrahim said that at a consultative meeting on Sunday in the Qatari capital Doha OPEC ministers attending an international energy forum "will see what needs to be done to further calm the market."

He said that ministers from OPEC, which is responsible for 40 percent of the world's crude oil output, had been holding talks for the past two weeks.