"This global problem needs global solutions," Brown said, highlighting estimates that, beyond the immediate threat to economic growth from world oil prices of nearly $70 a barrel, oil demand could rise 50 percent in the next 20 years.

The ministers issued a statement saying they also wanted oil companies to increase investment in oil exploration, production and refining capacity as well as alternative energy services.

"All over Europe, energy companies are making very high profits and it may be reasonable to recycle part of them" to help poor people whose bills for light and heating are soaring, Italian Economy Minister Domenico Siniscalco added.

Total made profits of about 1.5 million euros an hour in the first six months of this year.

In France, Total and BP agreed to cut unleaded fuel prices on Saturday by 3 euro cents ($0.037) per litre and diesel by two cents, after Finance Minister Thierry Breton raised the spectre of taxing their profits more heavily.

The statement issued at the end of the two-day meeting of finance ministers illustrated mounting political concern over the potential damage to economic growth from oil prices, both globally and within Europe.

But Brown said that inflation remained limited so far, unlike during the oil crises of the 1970s.

British household gas bills are about to rise nearly 15 percent while petrol and home heating oil have risen by 30 percent or so in the past year in much of Europe.

SINNERS

Ministers also appealed to the United States and China to use oil more efficiently.

"Attention should be drawn to the fact that the biggest sinners on energy efficiency -- the United States and also China now -- need to address this issue with greater intensity," Caio Koch-Weser, Germany's deputy finance minister, said.

The United States remains by far the world's largest oil consumer, guzzling a quarter of the world's daily usage of 81 million barrels, but China is second and demand in Asia has surged more than a third in the past decade.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters the issue would be raised at a meeting in two weeks of the G7 group -- the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Britain and Canada.

"We will use our G7 meetings in Washington in two weeks to have a frank word with our American colleagues," Juncker said.

If oil remained expensive in the fourth quarter, economic growth in the 12-nation euro currency zone year could be around 1.0 percent this year rather than the previously expected 1.3 percent, he said.