Oil markets dropped deeper into the mire on Friday, extending a slide that has taken prices back to within sight of 10-year lows.
Benchmark Brent was down three cents at $12.47, less than a dollar up from this August's nadir, as a stubborn supply glut allows oil traders to take a relaxed stance over key producer Iraq's brewing crisis with the United Nations.
Prices are nearly $7 below last year's average despite the threat posed by US President Bill Clinton's latest warning of potential military action to Iraq's near two million barrels per day of crude exports.
President Clinton called Iraq's latest defiance of UN resolutions "totally unacceptable," telling Baghdad that it must comply immediately and that military force was an option.
Mr Clinton's warning came after the UN Security Council's unanimous 15-0 vote on Thursday condemning Iraq's decision to stop co-operating with UN weapons inspectors.
The Security Council resolution did not raise the threat of force if Iraq failed to comply. But the US and Britain have said they already have the authority to do whatever is needed to force Baghdad to stop blocking UN weapons inspectors.
US Defence Secretary William Cohen, on a trip to the Middle East and Europe to drum up support against Iraq, said Gulf Arab states were "united in their condemnation" of Saddam's latest defiance.
