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1st LD Writethru: Oil prices rebound amid geographic risks

Xinhua, March 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

Oil prices rallied Tuesday as Israeli Prime Minister called for rejection of a nuclear deal with Iran.

"We are better off" with a bad deal with Iran, Benjamin Netanyahu told a joint session of U.S. Congress. The Israeli leader called for dismantling Iran's uranium enrichment program under any deal.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was having another round of talks with Iran in Switzerland, as part of the efforts by the so-called P5+1 groups of the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China plus Germany to map out the outlines of a deal.

Oil prices were also boosted by the news of the unrest in oil producer Libya.

The port of Es Sider was attacked Tuesday by a plane belonging to Libya's Islamist-backed government, the Petroleum Facilities Guard said. The port has been shut since December.

U.S. Energy Information Administration will publish Wednesday its report on crude inventory for the week ended Feb. 27. It is expected to show another increase after prior week's record stockpile.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery gained 0.93 U.S. dollars to settle at 50.52 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for April delivery moved up 1.48 dollars to close at 61.02 dollars a barrel. Endite