By Edwin Chan

     SHANGHAI, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Wednesday the kingdom and OPEC remained committed to a stable crude market and would fill any shortages in world supply ``whenever they happen and for whatever reason.''

     But he said it was too early to know whether the OPEC producers cartel, of which Saudi Arabia is the most influential member, would make any changes to output when it meets next week.

     ``There is a lot of concern in the area of price stemming from concerns of a potential shortage in supply, I can assure you there will be no supply shortage,'' Naimi told delegates at the World Petroleum Conference in Shanghai.

     ``We in Saudi Arabia, and in joint cooperation with other OPEC producers, are committed to a stable oil market. We will make up shortages in supplies whenever they happen and for whatever reason.''

     Ministers of the 11-member Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are due to meet in Vienna on September 26 to review production policy.

     U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham last weekend asked OPEC producers to take the world's sliding economy into account when setting production levels next week.

     Any tightness in supplies would lead to a run up in oil prices, which could exacerbate the economic slowdown in major petroleum consumers, of which the United States is the largest.

     Crude prices jumped to close to $30 a barrel last week after hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

     Prices have since eased to about $27.50 a barrel amid fears the U.S. economy will tip into recession, which would reduce demand for oil.

     But the market is also wary of U.S. military retaliation for the attacks and the possible destabilising effect on the Middle East where two-thirds of world petroleum reserves lie.

     Naimi said OPEC would base its decisions on ``a stable oil market around the $25 per barrel level, that is what we aim for.''

     ``Our commitment to the stability of the market is unquestionable,'' he said.

     OPEC Secretary-General Ali Rodriguez said on Tuesday there was no need for the group to change output limits.

     OPEC's last output change came into effect on September 1, when it took one million barrels per day out of global supplies.

     ``There is no reason to change our daily production of 23.2 million barrels,'' Rodriguez told the Kurier newspaper in Austria.

     OPEC has an informal agreement among members to keep the price of a reference basket of seven crudes within a $22 to $28 per barrel band. The basket price stood at $26.62 on Monday.
^ REUTERS@