ALGIERS -- Algeria has asked OPEC to increase its oil production quota from the current ceiling of 693,000 barrels per day (bpd), Energy Minister Chakib Khelil announced on Saturday.

He said the request would be examined by the cartel at a meeting in Geneva at the end of August, the APS press agency reported. "We have asked our representative to negotiate a higher quota," it quoted him as saying.

Khelil, a former OPEC president, last month called on fellow members to respect the production quotas, which the cartel agreed in June to keep in place until September, AFP reported.

Earlier this year he denied a report by Cyprus-based specialist newsletter the *****Middle East Economic Survey (MEES)**** that Algeria was ignoring the quota and actually pumping 850,000 bpd.