Europe Crude Benchmark Hit a Record

London - North Sea crude oil benchmark price struck a record today on the worries over Iran and the world's leading powers dispute over Irani nuclear policy.

London's Brent for the new front-month June contract soared 71 cents to $70.57 a barrel on the IPE.

US light crude for May settled up 70 cents at US$69.32 a barrel, about US$1.50 from the US record hit last August.

Attention was focused on Iran, which said yesterday it would not back away from sensitive nuclear work, after announcing this week it had enriched uranium to a level used in nuclear power stations.

"Our answer to those who are angry about Iran obtaining the full nuclear cycle is one phrase. We say: Be angry and die of this anger," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday, in comments reported by the official IRNA news agency.

United Nations diplomats said the Security Council was unlikely to take substantive action on Iran before the end of April, when it receives a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA's leader, Mohamed ElBaradei, said in Tehran today he could not confirm Iran had successfully enriched the uranium. He has called on the Islamic state to suspend enrichment and return to diplomatic negotiations.