SINGAPORE Oil prices edged lower on Monday as the market took stock of recent strong gains and digested OPEC's decision to maintain output curbs.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Friday agreed to keep a cap on oil output until the end of June in a largely expected move.

But this leaves importers to fret that prices may race out of control before the cartel opens the taps again. OPEC agreed to meet again on June 26 to review the market.

Benchmark U.S. light crude futures were 14 cents lower at $24.37 a barrel at 0730 GMT, after also losing five cents last Friday in New York trading, where the market settled at $24.51.

The losses, however, were minimal compared to the swift four dollar climb to six month highs since February 25 on fears of military action against Iraq and expectations that the OPEC cuts would stay in place.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Sunday that he was "very relaxed" about current oil prices but warned that the possibility of U.S. action against Iraq threatened to destabilize the market.

"The possibility of war and all this talk of war and warmongering and the axis of evil that the press is playing up could be destabilizing. It will have an impact on prices and will fuel speculation," Naimi told Reuters in an interview.

OPEC is seeking to keep the price of its reference basket of crudes in a $22-$28 a barrel range.

The basket was last priced at $22.79 a barrel on Thursday. It returned to the favored range one week ago after staying below the band since September 24.

Economists are worried that a jump in energy costs now, which hits consumers through bigger heating bills and price hikes at the pump, could endanger the nascent economic recovery.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said last week that the OPEC would have to boost output in the second half or risk slowing the U.S. recovery.

OPEC Secretary-General Ali Rodriguez said on Saturday he expected the cartel to keep stringent oil output curbs all year as the world economy recovers slowly.

"I think for the rest of the year production should be left at these levels if we are to avoid seeing prices below $20," the former Venezuelan oil minister told reporters after Friday's OPEC meeting.

Russia, the world's second biggest exporter after Saudi Arabia, will decide this week whether to hold current curbs of 150,000 bpd in place for the second quarter.