<div><p>The emir of Qatar called on Wednesday for the alignment of gas prices with oil prices at the opening of a forum of gas exporting countries.</p><p>"The increase experienced by the oil price this year has not been followed by an improvement in gas prices, and we hope that this will only be temporary," Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani told the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.</p><p>"It is necessary to work to restore the correlation between the price of oil and gas, and the decisions taken by this board must be equal to our ambitions," he added.</p><p>Gas prices collapsed late last year in line with oil, which plunged from a high of around 147 dollars per barrel to 37 dollars before stabilising at around 75 dollars this year.</p><p>Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah echoed the emir's concerns saying "gas is not being treated fairly in pricing."</p><p>"There should not be a discrimination against a fuel that is green and clean ... The prices of gas and oil should be linked," he said as the forum concluded.</p><p>The one-day meeting brought together a dozen countries including Russia, the world's largest gas producer, as well as Algeria, Iran and Venezuela.</p><p>The participants also elected the deputy director of Russia's Stroytransgaz, Leonid Bokhanovsky, as a secretary general of the forum.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=65102822&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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