By Parisa Hafezi TEHRAN (Reuters) - Oil prices below $100 a barrel were unsuitable for both producers and consumers, Iran's oil minister said on Saturday. High fuel prices and the wider economic crisis have hurt consumption in top consumer the United States and other major consumers. U.S. crude traded around $93 a barrel on Friday, down over $50 from a record over $147 in July. "$100 and below is not suitable for oil producers or oil consumers," Iran's Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari told reporters at an energy conference. The world's fourth-largest exporter is among the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that needs high oil prices to balance its budget. OPEC, source of more than a third of the world's oil, agreed in September to trim output to prop up prices. The producer group called for strict compliance among members with output targets, a move officials said would result in a reduction in OPEC oil supplies of around 500,000 barrels per day. Iran's oil minister has previously said $100 was the lowest appropriate price for a barrel of crude. Anything below that level would slow investment in high-cost projects to boost oil output, which would hurt consumers in the long run, Iran's OPEC Governor Muhammad Ali Khatibi has said. Recent oil market volatility was due to the world's economic problems, Nozari said on Saturday.

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