The United States must take the lead in resolving the crisis, which stemmed from a US-based credit crunch last year, said Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri.

"What is surprising me is everybody looking at OPEC to bail out this crisis. In OPEC, we are most of us very poor countries, we cannot bail out this crisis," he told an industry conference in London.

"This crisis created in the States must be solved within the States, they are capable of doing it," he added at the Oil and Money conference held in a London hotel.

Last week, OPEC ministers agreed to slash oil output by 1.5 million barrels a day in a bid to shore up crude prices which have plunged from highs of around 150 dollars a barrel to below 60 dollars.

The White House denounced OPEC's decision, made at an emergency meeting in Vienna on Friday, as "anti-market," while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "disappointed."

Rich oil-consuming countries are struggling to deal with a global economic slowdown, and falling oil prices have provided one reason for relief amid the overwhelming gloom.

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