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Istanbul: OPEC president Mohammed Al Hamli warned US lawmakers on Wednesday they were taking a "really dangerous step" in seeking legislation to sue the oil group.
The US Senate last week approved a plan that would enable the federal government to take legal action against OPEC for price manipulation, but the White House has threatened to veto the measure.
"It's a really dangerous step. We are in the process of fighting that," Hamli said at an oil conference in Turkey.
He said OPEC had successfully fought off two prior attempts by Washington against the 12-member grouping, saying decisions taken by the group were non-binding.
The current bill, sponsored by Democrat Herb Kohl of Wisconsin and Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, would revoke the sovereign immunity members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries enjoy from US legal action.
The measure, which has gathered support due to high gasoline pump prices of around $3 a gallon in the United States, would allow the Justice Department to sue OPEC nations in US courts.
The House of Representatives last month voted 345-72 to approve the "No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act of 2007," or "NOPEC."
The White House has threatened to veto the measure, and even if it became law, the Bush administration's Justice Department would have to initiate any lawsuit.
Some of the bill's opponents have warned that OPEC nations - source of about a third of the world's oil - could reciprocate and sue the United States in their courts, or refuse to sell oil to the United States.
Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, the Senate Energy Committee's senior Republican, said last week the plan would hurt US consumers more than it would OPEC.
The United States, the world's biggest crude oil consumer, relies on imports for about 60 percent of its daily needs. Much of U.S. imports come from non-OPEC members like Canada and Mexico, but OPEC members like Venezuela, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia supply significant quantities.
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