Though a major oil demander, China should not be taken as the sole factor pushing up global oil prices, said an oil expert from the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) in east China's Shanghai Municipality on Saturday while attending a local forum.

Last year's explosive demands for oil worldwide helped bring global oil prices to a record high, said Lawrence Eagles, head of the IEA's oil market division, disagreeing at the accusation that China should be held individually accountable for the price hikes.

The oil analyst attributed China's increasing demands for oil to fast economic development and called for a more facilitating attitude worldwide toward China's growing opulence.

He said China's per capita oil consumption was far less than that of the developed nations such as the United States, Japan and Germany as well as some developing peers, describing the skyrocketing oil demands last year as an "universal" phenomenon.

According to the oil expert, China's oil demand is decreasing and should not arouse panic in 2005.

While commenting on China's strategic oil reserve, Eagles said if China takes proper steps in this regard and increases transparency in the whole process, global oil speculators would have little space to bet in China.

(Xinhua News Agency May 30, 2005)