AKIPRESS.COM - The world's biggest oil producers have failed to reach an agreement at a meeting seeking to freeze output and reassure markets that a recent recovery in prices can be sustained, Al Jazeera reported.

Sunday's talks in Qatar's capital saw the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) - and, unusually, other producers - trying to agree that average daily crude oil production in the coming months would not exceed levels recorded in January.

Qatari Energy Minister Mohammed Saleh al-Sada said after six hours of negotiations that consultations would continue between the parties until an OPEC meeting in June.

"All participating countries will consult among themselves and with others," he said.

Oman's Oil Minister Mohammed al-Rumhy said one reason a deal was not reached was that not all OPEC members were present.

"Until this morning we thought there would be a deal. We didn't know Iran wasn't coming," he told Al Jazeera.

The run-up to the summit saw months of disagreements about the impact any freeze would have on individual OPEC members.

The position of Iran - now ramping up production after Western sanctions were lifted as part of the nuclear deal it signed with world powers - had proven a sticking point, with diplomats and officials at the talks telling Al Jazeera that Saudi Arabia was insisting Tehran should sign up to any agreement.

Iran, though, did not send a delegation to the meeting, saying it would not accept proposals to cap its production until it recovered a similar market share to that which it held before the sanctions were imposed.

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