The world's most powerful oil consumers, fearing soaring energy costs could endanger their prosperity, turned up the heat on producer countries this week end but met stiff resistance to their appeals for enhanced output capacity.
And it was far from certain that their exhortations would have any tangible effect on producers, who insist there is already plenty of oil on the market and that high prices are the result of "geopolitical" jitters and speculation.
With prices surging above 75 dollars a barrel in New York, the Group of Seven industrialised powers warned after a meeting here Friday that the global economy was now under threat.
They insisted it was therefore "crucial" for producers to boost investment in production infrastructure.