PARIS (AP) -- France's leader on Friday called on OPEC and other oil producing nations to consider negotiating guaranteed and acceptable prices for oil directly with developed countries.
Nicolas Sarkozy said he believes oil producers might be receptive to such an idea now that prices have fallen from record highs. They would have been skeptical when prices were hovering around $150 a barrel, he said.
"It is in everyone's interest to regulate the prices of raw materials, not just oil, not just gas, but all raw materials," said Sarokozy in a speech to foreign diplomats stationed in France.
"Let us seize this moment to extend a hand to oil-producing nations ... to tell them, 'We developed nations are ready to examine with producing countries how to guarantee them a median acceptable level for the price of oil.'"
When oil was priced at $150 a barrel, producers "would have looked at us and said, 'It didn't bother you that for years you exploited our oil at pauper's rates,'" Sarkozy said. "Now that prices are low let us profit from that to take an initiative."
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is a cartel of oil producing countries that meet regularly to set production rates and so influence prices. OPEC members include Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.