Tuesday, April 25 2006 11:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: World oil prices fell from record highs amid profit-taking, as traders debated whether the market had topped out or was merely pausing amid another run higher.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, slid 1.83 dollars to US$ 73.33 per barrel in closing trades yesterday.

New York crude had touched US$ 75.35 per barrel in Asian electronic trade - matching the all-time intraday high set last Friday.

London's Brent North Sea crude meanwhile fell 1.57 dollars to close at US$ 73.00 a barrel, after Friday's historic peak of US$ 74.79.

"It's just really some profit taking at this point," said John Kilduff at Fimat USA, who added that there was a lot of buying ahead of the weekend.

Kilduff said the factors that led to last week's record highs concerns about Iran and other geopolitical hotspots as well as potential supply shortages of gasoline in the US have not disappeared.

"Nothing has really changed, but a very significant and steep rally almost necessitated a correction at some point," he said.

"This is just a brief respite the Iran situation will come to the fore on Friday with the UN and the (US) inventory report on Wednesday will also prove to be bullish for the market."

Also yesterday, OPEC decided to keep its crude output steady and blamed the market frenzy on political tension and lack of refining capacity.