OPEC oil ministers agreed yesterday on a production cut to help boost slumping prices and that they would announce the size of the reduction today, the oil-producing cartel's secretary general, Mr Ali Rodriguez said last night.

"There is an agreement but the figure will be published tomorrow," he said ahead of today's formal meeting of the 11-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The cut is expected to be between 1.5 and 2.0 million barrels per day, OPEC president Mr Chakib Khelil, Algeria's oil minister, said earlier. Other OPEC ministers said the cut would be 1.5 million barrels.