In afternoon trade, New York¡¯s main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, fell 29 cents to $109.85 a barrel. 

The contract closed at $110.14 during floor trading on Friday at the New York Mercantile Exchange. It had rocketed to a record $112.21 during intra-day trade on Wednesday. 

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Victor Shum, senior principal at Purvin and Gertz energy consultancy in Singapore, said prices were also under the influence of movement in the US dollar. 

The latest economic warning came Friday from finance ministers and central bank governors of the G7 major industrialized countries. 

The world economy ¡°continues to face a difficult period ... [and] near-term economic prospects have weakened,¡± the G7 officials said in a statement after their meeting in Washington. 

The finance chiefs from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US were tackling a complex crisis that began in the US subprime, or high-risk, home-loan market in August and has spread into a global credit squeeze draining world growth. 

¡°The turmoil in global financial markets remains challenging and more protracted than we had anticipated,¡± the G7 said before weekend meetings of the board of governors of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. 

A slowing United States, the world¡¯s biggest economy, could hit demand for energy products. The US is the world¡¯s thirstiest oil consumer. 

The dollar staged a brief rebound in Asian trade on Monday after the G7 showed growing concern about the currency¡¯s recent slide, dealers said. 

But the rally soon ran out of steam as traders bet that the rich nations will refrain from joint intervention to buy the ailing greenback for now.