Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- OPEC should keep its oil-output ceiling in place when it meets on March 5 if crude prices stay near record levels, Libya's top oil official said.

``There is no need to cut,'' Ghanem, chairman of Libya's National Oil Corp., said today in telephone interview from Tripoli. ``It won't look nice either.''

When asked if the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries should roll over the output ceiling if prices stay near $100 a barrel, he said ``yes.''

The 13-member OPEC, which controls more than 40 percent of the world oil supply, agreed to keep quotas unchanged at a Feb. 1 meeting in Vienna.

To contact the reporter on this story: Maher Chmaytelli in Nicosia at mchmaytelli@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 20, 2008 10:26 EST