Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez said Monday that an oil price band mechanism should be reinstated as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) almost reached its production ceiling.

Tensions between major oil producing countries and consuming nations have risen to the highest since the oil crisis in the 1970s, Rodriguez said.

He was here attending a foreign ministers' meeting ahead of the South American-Arab Summit.

Rodriguez said that major petroleum consuming and producing nations should reach an agreement on the price band to end sharp changes in oil prices.

The price band between 22 and 28 dollars per barrel was adopted in the year 2000, but was largely ignored in 2004 and was suspended last January.

Venezuela, a founding member of the OPEC, is the world's fifth oil exporter.