SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush, wrapping up a Middle East trip on Wednesday, hopes his talks in Saudi Arabia will help encourage OPEC to raise production and dampen oil prices, the White House said.
Bush brought up the issue of high oil prices, which have touched $100 a barrel, and their effect on the economy at the desert ranch of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
"The president said that there is a hope as a result of these conversations that OPEC would be encouraged to authorise an increase in production," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters travelling with Bush to Egypt from Saudi Arabia.
"The president said that the king says that he understands that the high price of oil can negatively affect economies around the world, and when economies aren't growing as fast as they have been other economies are going to suffer," she said.
"So the president believes it's in everyone's interest to have adequate supplies of oil to deal with the amount of demand," she added.
In his final stop before returning to Washington, Bush arrived in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The Egyptian government is one of Washington's closest friends in the Arab world but Bush and Mubarak have not met for more than four years, Egyptian officials said.
Bush has been telling regional allies that Iran is a threat, Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts need support, and high oil prices are in no one's interest.
He spent two nights in Saudi Arabia stressing close personal ties, and raised concern about the high price of oil with the leader of the world's biggest oil exporting country.
"The president reiterated the issue of there being tight supply and very high and rising demand, not just in America but around the world, especially in India and China," Perino said.
"This is not a situation that's going to be solved overnight," she said, adding that Bush has been "pursuing aggressively alternative and renewable forms of energy".
