Opec will not call for an emergency meeting before its scheduled gathering in June 2011  if the price of crude oil hits $100 a barrel, Kuwait's oil minister told reporters on Tuesday.

Asked whether the oil producing group would hold an  emergency meeting if oil prices, near $90 a barrel currently,  hit $100 a barrel, Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah said: 'No.'

Oil was steady above $89 on Tuesday, with U.S. crude for  February gaining 12 cents to $89.37 a barrel by 1005  GMT after trading as high as $89.67 at the start of the  trading session.

US crude prices reached a 27-month high of $92.58 last week on expectations that a sustained economic recovery would  boost energy demand from both emerging markets and industrialised nations.

Opec, source of more than a third of the world's oil, left  its oil output target unchanged at a December 11 meeting, keeping  the same level since a record reduction of 4.2 million bpd in  December 2008 when recession hit demand and prices.-Reuters