Venezuela president says Algeria visit to focus on pushing up up oil prices

Visiting President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday that his talks with his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika will focus on ways to push up plunging oil prices.

The talks will tackle ways of ensuring the stability of oil prices, Maduro told reporters before his meeting with Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal.

He said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will not hold a summit in the coming weeks, as proposed by his country, for "lack of consensus around this initiative."

Maduro said Venezuela and Algeria are bound with "close relations and mutual trust" and that Algeria plays "an important role in terms of strengthening the OPEC role."

Algeria and Venezuela are among the OPEC members which have been urging a cut in oil output to push up prices up.

Oil prices hit a 5.5-year low on Monday as U.S. crude oil prices fell to 45 dollars per barrel after Goldman Sachs said the oil price would drop further in the first half of 2015 until a balance is reached.

The current drop in the prices has forced the oil-revenues-dependent Algeria to announce some austerity measures including the reduction of the number of "mega projects" and adoption of stricter management of the government budget.

The Venezuelan president arrived here on Monday on a two-day visit. Endit