OIL prices that last week seemed on an inexorable path toward US$100 a barrel slid more than US$3 to the US$91 level yesterday after the International Energy Agency cut its demand forecasts and said crude supplies are rising.

    Prices also fell after diplomats said Iran has handed over blueprints key to its nuclear program, meeting a central United Nations demand and potentially defusing the country's standoff with the West.

    "One of the reasons that we've been strong on oil all year is concerns about Iran's nuclear program," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.

    Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell US$3.45 to settle at US$91.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Only last Thursday, crude prices traded as high as US$98.62, a record, and appeared headed for US$100.

    The IEA, an energy policy adviser to 26 predominantly Western industrialized nations, lowered its fourth-quarter oil demand forecasts by 500,000 barrels a day, and cut its demand forecasts for 2008 by 300,000 barrels a day. Year-over-year demand growth will now average 1.2 percent in 2007 and 2.3 percent in 2008, the IEA said.

    At the same time, global oil supplies grew by 1.4 million barrels a day in October due to increases in OPEC supplies and production in China, Azerbaijan and Russia, the IEA said. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries boosted output by 410,000 barrels a day in October, the IEA said.

    "There are ... strong indications that high prices are depressing demand," the IEA said in its monthly Oil Market Report.

    Oil's recent surge _ crude prices have jumped 42 percent since late August _ was fed by a mixture of concerns about falling domestic supplies and rising demand, the threat of disruptions to the oil flow from the Middle East and actual breaks in production from Nigeria.