World oil prices extended a pre-weekend rally, helped by the arrival of a cold snap in the United States which was expected to raise demand for heating fuel.

In London on Monday, the price of Brent North Sea crude for March delivery rose 25 cents to 53.70 dollars per barrel in electronic trading. It earlier went above 54 dollars.

New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, climbed 46 cents to 52.42 dollars per barrel in electronic deals.

Crude futures had surged by more than 1.5 dollars on Friday as the market switched its attention to the colder weather.

Global Insight analyst Simon Wardell said on Monday that the rally was owing "to the cold snow we had in the US".

"Maybe the bad weather will start to reduce that stockpile in the US particularly for heating oil," he added.

Prior to crude's rebound, New York's oil price had slid to 49.90 dollars per barrel last Thursday, marking its lowest level since late May 2005. This came after the US government reported a strong jump in US crude reserves.

Victor Shum, an analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz in Singapore, said the spike in prices may be short-lived as the colder weather appears to have come too late.

He pointed to the fact that the United States, the world's largest energy user, currently has ample stocks of heating oil.

"There are not too many cold winter days left," Shum said.

"In the last few trading sessions, most market participants ignored any bits of bullish news and the cold weather in the US came a bit too late."

Crude prices have dipped sharply since the start of 2007, mainly owing to mild winter temperatures across the United States. Prices are about 33 percent lower than their all time peak of above 78 dollars reached during the middle of 2006.

Furthermore, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Friday revised downward its estimate for growth in world oil demand this year to 1.5 percent from 1.6 percent.

OPEC was due to cut its output by a further 500,000 barrels per day from February 1. In October, OPEC members had agreed to cut the cartel's combined output by 1.2 million bpd to 26.3 million bpd in a bid to lift prices.