December New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) crude futures trading in Asia were last traded at $23.25 per barrel, up six cents from the settlement in New York.

Support had come mainly from the weekly American Petroleum Institute (API) data, which were released late on Tuesday, and showed an unexpectedly big fall in stocks of oil products.

The API reported that gasoline stocks in the week ended October 22 were down by two million barrels, while stocks of distillates, mainly gasoil and kerosene, were down by three million barrels.

The market had been expecting inventories of these products to rise, due to a tapering off in the autumn refinery maintenance and some reductions in refinery throughputs.

The API data also showed a big rise in weekly crude stocks, but that was largely ignored, as the bulk of the stock increase was in the West of the Rockies region, which is isolated geographically from the rest of the country.

US crude prices are inching back towards their 32-month peak of $25.12 hit in late September, before prices slipped following a speculative sell-off.

In the last two weeks, sentiment has been bolstered by fresh signals from OPEC and non-OPEC producers that they would support an extension of the current supply curbs beyond the March 2000, expiry.

The latest indication of support came from Oman, a non-OPEC producer that has taken part in the global output cuts.

Omani oil minister Mohammad bin Hamad Seif al-Ramhi said on Tuesday he backed the continuation of the cuts beyond March. His comments echoed those made last week by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, Kuwait and Mexico.

The producers said they were worried that inventories were not falling fast enough. Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali al-Naimi said last week he was still waiting for clear signs that oil demand had picked up.