By Mari Iwata Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Crude-oil futures stayed in positive territory in Asian trading Monday amid further calls for oil sanctions on Iran and ahead of a meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy later in the day. Equity and currency markets were lackluster, with participants awaiting additional measures by France and Germany to prevent the European sovereign debt crisis from worsening. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in January traded at $101.51 a barrel at 0729 GMT, up $0.55 in the Globex electronic session. January Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose $0.92 to $110.86 a barrel. "It's tough to sell right now," as there are positive and negative factors in the market, Newedge Japan trader Masaki Suematsu said. "Sentiment is a little better now on developments last week," including U.S. jobless data that showed a below-9% unemployment rate, but "we won't see any real strength unless the euro-zone crisis is over." Analysts said crude's next target is $103.37 a barrel, but they don't expect it to go up any further due to the European debt crisis. The rising international clamor for greater sanctions on Iranian oil exports is also feeding concern. An official from Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government "should be very careful" when making a decision on sanctions, to avoid boosting crude prices during a time of global economic weakness. Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for January--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 381 points to $2.6543 a gallon, while January heating oil traded at $3.0121, 221 points higher. ICE gasoil for December changed hands at $960.00 a metric ton, up $8.75 from Friday's settlement. -By Mari Iwata, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-6269-2798; mari.iwata@dowjones.com

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