SINGAPORE (Commodity Online) : Global oil prices remained below $80 a barrel in Asian trade Tuesday as the markets await the outcome of a crucial OPEC meeting.

Light sweet crude for April delivery was seen trading at $79.72 a barrel at 11.30 a.m Singapore time while Brent crude was at $77.71 a barrel at the same time.

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Analysts said oil prices dropped nearly 2 percent Monday , its biggest one-day fall in more than two weeks, as the market awaits the outcome of OPEC and central bank meetings.

The slide in oil prices on Monday, which took front-month crude below $80 for the first time since March 4, was triggered by dollar gains, and also fears that a 16-month high in consumer inflation in China might lead the country's central bank to raise bank reserve requirements as early as this week.

With the dollar also flat against the euro, after gains the previous day on worries about debt problems in Greece, there was little reason for oil prices to move.

On Monday, light sweet crude for April delivery, slid $US1.44 to close at $US79.80 a barrel while Brent crude plunged $US1.50 to close at $77.89 per barrel.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries was widely expected to keep its official output quota at 24.84 million barrels a day at its meeting on Wednesday.

OPEC's second-largest producer, Iran, said on Monday that the cartel should not raise production as there was no sign of an increase in world demand.

The cartel's 12 member nations together pump around 40 per cent of the world's crude oil supplies.

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