Oil was mixed in Asian trade on Friday as investors waited for the release of US existing homes sales data, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery dropped seven cents to $81.12 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for December delivery was three cents firmer at $79.54 a barrel.

Crude prices surged to a one-year high of $82 earlier this week, driven by optimism over the global economic recovery and a weak dollar.

Data due later Friday for US existing home sales in September is expected to show a rise in transactions last month, analysts said.

"The bottom line is that home sales are accelerating rapidly, inventories of unsold homes are falling rapidly and starts/construction are now on the rise," analysts from Singapore's DBS bank said in a report.

"Housing, the epicentre of the downturn/financial crisis, is now contributing to GDP growth rather than subtracting from it... All things must pass, housing busts included," they said.

The US economy, in a recession since December 2007, is expected to post its first growth in a year in the third quarter of 2009, analysts said.

Meanwhile, Opec secretary general Abdalla Salem El-Badri said in London Thursday that the cartel would consider ramping up crude oil production at its next meeting in December if key conditions are met.

The cartel "will not hesitate to increase its production in December", he told reporters, adding the decision was dependent on higher oil prices, improving economic growth and no floating storage of crude.

The 12-nation Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), whose members pump 40 percent of the world's crude oil supplies, will hold their next meeting in Luanda, Angola, on December 22.

Oil prices tumbled from historic highs of more than $147 in July 2008 to about $32 in December because of the global recession but have since risen on hopes of recovery.

AFP

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