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Oil up $2 as global markets rally

U.S. crude for November delivery rose $2.27 to $72.12 a barrel by 1508 GMT. It touched a low of $68.57 on Thursday, its lowest since June last year.

London Brent crude gained $1.80 to $69.64.

"The market is up in line with other asset classes," said Thomas Stenvoll at UBS.

"Oil is dependent on strength in the economy but in order to have a sustainable rally we need to have proof that it has really improved or at least it is not collapsing," he said. "And right now we are not getting that proof."

Analysts said oil traders were also betting that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will reduce supply to support prices when it meets next week.

The producer group has brought forward an emergency meeting to next Friday to discuss the impact of global recession on oil markets.

Qatar's Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said he expected OPEC to cut oil production by one million barrels per day (bpd) or more at the meeting.

Nigerian Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia said the meeting was an opportunity to consider options regarding the world oil price but that no course of action had yet been proposed.

Oil prices have fallen more than 50 percent from their peak above $147 a barrel hit just three months ago, depressed partly by falls in demand in the United States and other industrial countries as the credit crisis has started to affect the wider economy.