SINGAPORE (AFP) -- Oil prices rose in Asian trade Tuesday on market expectations of an OPEC production cut, dealers said.

They said there may have been lingering jitters after North Korea announced a nuclear test on Monday, but the prime mover was growing talk from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries about a supply cut.

At 02:24 P.M. (0624 GMT) New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, was 35 cents higher at 60.31 dollars a barrel from 59.96 dollars in late New York trade Monday when it had dropped back from above 61 dollars.

Brent North Sea crude for November was up 38 cents at 60.92 dollars.

Oil prices gained ground Monday after OPEC's president called for the cartel to slash output and after North Korea shocked world opinion by announcing a nuclear test.

"I think there's just growing expectation that OPEC is going to cut production," said Mark Pervan, senior resources analyst at Daiwa Securities in Melbourne.

"Rising geopolitical tensions and OPEC on the verge of formally cutting production for the first time in two years are supporting higher energy prices," Fimat analyst John Kilduff said. But Dave Ernsberger, Asia director of global energy information provider Platts, cautioned: "There seems to be some way to go before OPEC as a whole reaches some official consensus."

The 11-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel has maintained output at 28 million barrels per day since June 2005 but prices have fallen back since reaching record highs above 78 dollars in July.

In response, the president of OPEC, Nigerian oil minister Edmund Daukoru, proposed to cartel members that they cut their daily output by one million bpd to keep prices up.

No agreement on such a move has been reached, an OPEC spokesman told AFP on Monday.

Kuwait's energy minister said Monday his country was willing to cut its production of oil.

"We accept to cut production (of oil) depending on market needs, in order to safeguard the stability of the market," Sheikh Ali al-Jarrah al-Sabah told reporters.

He said ministers of the oil cartel are "studying a (possible) cut between 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) and one million bpd".

Pervan said the market was still probably "a little bit jittery about North Korea" but Ernsberger said the announcement of a nuclear test "is of almost no consequence to the oil market at all" because the country is not a major consumer or producer of oil.