Asked whether the oil producing group would hold an emergency meeting if oil prices, near $90 a barrel currently, hit $100 a barrel, Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah said: "No."

Oil was steady above $89 on Tuesday, with U.S. crude for February CLc1 gaining 12 cents to $89.37 a barrel by 1005 GMT after trading as high as $89.67 at the start of the trading session.

U.S. crude prices reached a 27-month high of $92.58 last week on expectations that a sustained economic recovery would boost energy demand from both emerging markets and industrialised nations.

OPEC, source of more than a third of the world's oil, left its oil output target unchanged at a December 11 meeting, keeping the same level since a record reduction of 4.2 million bpd in December 2008 when recession hit demand and prices.