UPDATE: IEA Closely Monitoring Oil Market, Prices Very High

The International Energy Agency is concerned that very high oil prices could damage the fragile economy and will continue to monitor the market and remain in close contact with its member countries, the organization's executive director, Maria van der Hoeven, said Thursday.

The statement, to mark the conclusion of a regular quarterly meeting in Paris of energy experts from all 28 IEA member countries, didn't directly address comments from a French government official Wednesday, that France has approached the agency about tapping emergency oil stocks to ease high prices.

However, the statement did indicate a change in the IEA's rhetoric on the issue. Van der Hoeven said last week that the IEA hadn't discussed any plans to release oil from strategic stocks with its members.

"No specific supply disruption is currently under way, we are not planning any coordinated actions at the present time," she said at a conference in New Delhi, India.

This week, van der Hoeven said the IEA, "will remain in close contact with member countries to exchange views about the oil-market situation."

"The IEA was created to respond to serious physical supply disruptions, and we remain ready to act if market conditions so warrant," van der Hoeven said in the statement after the Paris meeting.

Officials from the U.S. and the U.K. have also discussed the possibility of releasing oil from emergency stocks, which are coordinated by the IEA. A stock release has been proposed to reduce prices and ease the impact of sanctions on Iranian oil exports to be imposed in July.

-By James Herron, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]