MADRID, July 3, 2008 (AFP) - Tensions have flared between the oil powers and consumer nations at the World Petroleum Congress this week, with no sign of common ground on how to bring down record crude prices.

After failing to find agreement at a hastily arranged summit in Saudi Arabia on June 22, this week's industry event in Madrid has frequently resembled a dialogue of the deaf with both sides sticking to their positions.

OPEC secretary general Abdallah El-Badri called on the United States to stop 'harassing OPEC countries' on Wednesday and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for end to the blame game.

Consumer nations led by the United States are clamouring for more oil in a bid to cool the market.

But most members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries remain firmly against any increase in their production and blame speculators and the fall in the dollar for the remarkable run up in prices, which have doubled in the last 12 months.

OPEC secretary general Abdallah El-Badri Wednesday denounced the 'myth' of a oil shortage and blamed the crisis on speculation sparked by the subprime lending crisis in the United States.

'Seventy percent of crude contracts on the Nymex are held by speculators... Some form of regulation is needed,' he told a luncheon at the WPC.

'The market has no shortage of physical crude,' he said.

On Tuesday however, the rich world's energy watchdog the International Energy Agency laid the blame firmly on a lack of supply and future capacity and warned of looming new tensions from 2010.

Company bosses from Western oil majors have also cited fears of supply shortages caused by booming oil demand in Asia and the Middle East for the record crude prices of more than 140 dollars a barrel.

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais on Wednesday, El-Badri criticised the IEA.

'With the current high level of prices, we cannot say that there will be tension on the market ... because it is not true,' he said.

'At this price level, if there is demand, everyone will make investments and there will be more supply' in 2010, he said.

He also demanded the United States 'stop harassing OPEC countries,' when asked about a move by the US Congress to allow the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for conspiring to restrict supplies or drive up prices.

IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka was more conciliatory on Wednesday.

'If all the participants do their homework after Jeddah, we can change the scenario for the future,' he told the same luncheon attended by El-Badri.

Also on Wednesday, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued an impassioned plea for oil powers and consumer nations to stop the blame game over oil prices and join forces to calm the raging market.

Faced with opinion polls showing that rising domestic fuel costs were hurting his chances for re-election next year, he said either oil production must increase or consumption must fall.

'This is time for producer countries, not only OPEC and Saudi Arabia but also Russia and Venezuela, to sit together with consumer nations, with the US, China, India, and not to blame each other,' Yudhoyono said.

'They need to make calculations about to what extent they can step up their production. If it's not possible they have to have commit to reduce oil consumption.'

Indonesia is Asia's only OPEC member but Jakarta is planning to pull out at the end of the year as falling production has turned it into a net importer.

It was one of the first Asian countries to raise domestic fuel prices, announcing a 28.7-percent average rise in May as oil prices passed 120 dollars a barrel.