SINGAPORE, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - World oil prices fell further on Friday in a market increasingly worried that strains in the global economy are leading to a wider slowdown in energy demand, dealers said.

In afternoon trade New York's main contract, light sweet crude for November delivery, was 85 cents lower at 93.12 dollars a barrel, after sliding 4.56 dollars to 93.97 dollars at the close of floor trading on Thursday at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent North Sea crude for November dropped 69 cents to 89.87 dollars after a fall of 4.77 dollars to settle at 90.56 dollars Thursday in London.

Thursday's heavy falls came despite the US Senate's approval of a government plan to buy up to 700 billion dollars worth of tainted mortgage-related assets at the root of a global financial crisis.

'People are realising that the decline in demand is probably not just a US phenomenon,' said David Johnson, an oil analyst with Macquarie Securities in Hong Kong.

'I think people are just becoming a little bit more bearish over their outlook for oil consumption over the next 12 to 15 months.'

Oil prices have already dropped sharply from record high levels above 147 dollars a barrel in July on worries that demand is shrinking in the US-led global slowdown.

John Kilduff at MF Global said the 'widespread sentiment that a serious global slowdown is underway should continue to work negatively on commodity prices.'

'Alarm bells are going off around the world,' he said.

Even if the US bailout bill passes the House of Representatives in a vote expected later Friday, Johnson said he did not expect oil prices 'to go soaring.'

Analysts at Merrill Lynch have slashed their 2009 global oil demand growth estimates to 400,000 barrels per day.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last month cut its world oil demand growth forecast for this year to 1.02 percent, and lowered its forecast for next year to 1.00 percent.

Johnson said many of the investors who moved into the oil market and helped push prices to record-high levels earlier this year have moved out, adding further downward pressure on prices.