British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged a global solution to rising oil prices on Thursday and said he will travel to Saudi Arabia to discuss the issue with the world's largest producer.

"The Saudis have now agreed that they will convene a high level meeting in Jeddah a week on Sunday to address these issues. I strongly welcome this initiative," Brown told reporters at his monthly news conference.

"I will travel to Jeddah to work on it with King Abdullah. I will propose to the king that if necessary I will be happy to convene a follow-up summit at heads-of-government level in London as a venue."    

Brown has repeatedly emphasised the need for a more coordinated response to rising food and energy prices in recent days, saying after a meeting with EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso last week that the 27-nation bloc needed to draw up a joint strategy to tame rising costs.

Brown reiterated that message on Thursday and said he will also raise the issue at a G8 summit in Japan next month.

"World oil prices have trebled, wheat and maize prices have doubled, hitting every country as well as us hard," he said.

"For the foreseeable future, people expect growth in demand in food, oil and commodities to outstrip growth in supply."    
While he conceded there were issues with high energy demand that needed to be tackled -- by encouraging alternative or more efficient energy sources such as nuclear power -- he also said there were "issues of supply" that needed discussion.

Oil prices have surged around 40 percent since January -- and now stand at around $135 a barrel -- but Opec has said that there raising its supplies would not bring them lower.

Saudi Arabia, Opec's most influential member, will host the Jeddah meeting on June 22, bringing together global producers and consumers, including representatives from the United States and Japan, two of the world's top three energy consumers. - Reuters