A senior Kuwaiti oil official on Sunday played down the current price hike of the country's crude oil, which caused by growing global economy and political tensions.

Nawal Al-Fezeih, an assistant undersecretary in the Ministry of Oil and Kuwait's representative at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) made the comment in an interview with the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

Al-Fezeih was quoted as saying that the higher prices were due to growing global economy, which had a direct impact on the price of oil and its by-products, as well as the political unrest in more than an oil-producing country.

She predicted even more growth of the global economy in future, specifically in India, China and the U.S., saying the World Bank had predicted a 5.2 growth rate of global economy in 2008.This meant a higher demand for crude oil and its by-products, specifically by the transport sector including road and air transport, she added.

The Kuwaiti oil official stressed that the increase in demand for oil would be in the order of 1.3 million barrels daily next year, which was a significant increase.

"The second factor affecting prices is linked to the current geopolitical developments, specifically the international political and military tension in some production areas like the Middle East as well as the rising arguments between the U.S. and Iran on the strength of the latter's nuclear file," Al-Fezeih noted.

Al-Fezeih cited the developments in Iran's nuclear file as one of the parameters that could hardly be controlled and it was hard to predict how it would affect oil prices in future. "It (Iran) could lead to record oil prices," she said, adding that any compromise among the parties concerned with this issue would bring oil prices down once again.

OPEC was doing its best to maintain the stability of oil prices. Otherwise oil prices could tumble down to record lows, according to the Kuwaiti OPEC representative.