Kuwait's deputy foreign minister Khaled Jarallah said oil exporting countries must freeze production and the market could not support a production increase from Iran, state news agency KUNA reported on Saturday.

"There is no choice but to freeze production," Kuna quoted Jarallah as telling Japanese news agency Jiji press while he and acting oil minister Anas Al Saleh attend a Kuwait-Japan business seminar in Tokyo.

Asked about Iranian production policy, Jarallah said, "Iran should learn from the market ... the market does not give an opportunity to increase production."

Opec members and other oil exporters failed in a meeting in the Qatari capital Doha on April 17 to reach an agreement on freezing their output to rebalance the global oil market.

Iran, seeking to regain market share after international sanctions on Tehran were lifted last year, had refused to join the supply freeze initiative and the deal fell apart after Saudi Arabia insisted Tehran take part.-Reuters