NEW YORK, Jan. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- World crude prices rose Monday on the eve of OPEC meeting on whether to change its output.

    New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, gained 59 cents to close at 68.35 dollars a barrel.

    In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for March delivery climbed 35 cents to end at 66.59 dollars a barrel.

    On the New York Mercantile Exchange, heating oil rose 2.69 cents to settle at 1.8338 dollars per gallon, while gasoline futures gained 3.85 cents to 1.7749 dollars a gallon.

    Traders are waiting for the ends of a host of events to take direction from this week, including the meetings of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Tuesday and the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday and President George Bush's state of the union address.

    Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said Monday all the 11 members agreed on maintaining OPEC production ceiling of 28 million barrels per day (bpd) for now.

    Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, reported a quarterly profit of 10.7 billion U.S. dollars on Monday, rounding out the most profitable year in U.S. corporatehistory.

    Oil prices have climbed more than 10 percent since Iran said itwould restart nuclear research on Jan. 3. Crude prices struck record highs of 70.85 dollars a barrel on Aug. 30 in New York and 68.89 dollars in London, on worries of Hurricane Katrina. Enditem