Gordon Brown clashed with the world’s leading oil producers yesterday when he flew to an emergency meeting in the Middle East to tell them to increase output and invest in renewable energy projects in Britain.

In a 6,000-mile (9,650km) day trip to Jedda, Saudi Arabia, the Prime Minister told oil-exporting nations they had a responsibility to increase production to avoid “uncertainty and unpredictability for years ahead”.

This put him at odds with the head of Opec, which represents 13 oilexporting countries. Chakib Khelil, the Algerian Oil Minister and president of Opec, said that demand for oil was dropping. “We believe that the market is in equilibrium. The price is disconnected from fundamentals. It is not a problem of supply,” he said.

In an apparent snub to the Prime Minister’s demand, Mr Khelil said he “didn’t hear anything” to suggest that Opec members other than Saudi Arabia were planning to increase supply.

Mr Brown’s visit also attracted criticism at home. Alan Duncan, the Shadow Secretary of State for Business, said: “Gordon Brown grand-standing about a new deal will not solve the problem. [This] is becoming a humiliating begging mission which will not work.

“The Prime Minister does not appear to appreciate that, with oil production already up to capacity, there is very little Opec countries can do.”

Attending the meeting organised by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Mr Brown said that the world was going through “the third great oil shock in as many decades”, which is having a severe impact on standards of living around the globe. The price of oil closed on Friday close to $140 (£70) a barrel — £1.20 for a litre of unleaded — with many analysts predicting further increases.

Mr Brown said that the solutions to the oil crisis lay in strengthening the global free market, ending “short-term market distortions”.

He attacked subsidies offered by countries including China and India which were worth $200 billion a year and “hurt the poor”.

He told delegates: “We need to do all this in a way that is not the old zero-sum game where we hurt producers if we benefit consumers and vice versa, but a new win-win for both oil producers and consumers.”

Mr Brown was careful to play down suggestions of immediate benefits from the summit and refused to predict when oil prices might drop. The 200,000 barrels a day increase in oil production announced by Saudi Arabia before the summit was offset by a drop in Nigerian production of 120,000 barrels after attacks by militants on Friday.

Mr Brown, the only foreign head of government at the conference, said that much of the world was determined to reduce its dependence on oil.

He said that by 2050 the world would need 1,000 nuclear power stations, 700,000 new large wind turbines, and a 600 per cent increase in solar, biomass and hydro-power. In what he described as a “new deal” for oil producers, Mr Brown offered the opportunity for the countries to use some of $3 trillion generated by oil revenues to invest in renewable energy projects worldwide.

Mr Brown revealed that Britain was in talks with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Qatari Government to explore investment opportunities in British energy projects.

He also gave his strongest hint to date that he will approve the Scira wind farm project off the British coast with an £800 million investment by the StatoilHydro, the Norwegian energy company.

Britain will examine incentives for greater oil production, doing more to exploit the 25 billion barrels of reserves in the North Sea, including smaller fields, he said.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Violent video games won’t corrupt
• Pope Benedict XVI: Alma Mater
• Chávez should know what’s good for him