Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- The International Energy Agency said setting up an OPEC-style group to control natural-gas supplies and prices would be a mistake because utilities might increase electricity production from other sources of energy.

``If such a gas forum is formed it gives the wrong message to consumers and could be an own goal,'' Fatih Birol, the IEA's head of research, told a press conference today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Utilities may worry that such an organization would be able to control gas prices and opt for other sources of fuel, he said.

Qatar's Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said the world's biggest gas producers would discuss forging closer links at a meeting later this year in Moscow, though it was too early to predict what they would decide.

``We never call it a gas OPEC,'' he said at Davos. ``We talk about the gas forum.''

Gas producers including Russia, Iran, Qatar, the holders of the world's biggest reserves of the fuel, agreed at a meeting last year in Qatar to set up a committee of experts to study the possibility of forming a group along the lines of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls more than 40 percent of the world's oil supply.

Birol said the European Union's regulators to impose tighter caps on emission blamed for climate change are ``a very good step in the right direction.''

The EU plan to cut green house gas by 11 percent on average in 2013-2020, compared to 2008-2012, would help compensate for the projected increase in emissions from China, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Maher Chmaytelli in Davos at mchmaytelli@bloomberg.netNicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 25, 2008 06:25 EST