Oil prices raced higher today as dealers absorbed a weekend of difficult news for US and British forces fighting in Iraq, which cast doubt on traders' expectations of a quick end to the war.
The price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil rose $1.30 to $25.65 per barrel in afternoon trading in London, while New York's benchmark light crude climbed $1.29 to $28.20 after slumping more than a dollar on Friday.
Traders said the rise was inevitable given the way that the market had previously assumed the war would be over relatively quickly and simply.
Prices were bouncing back following a sharp drop of almost 20% over last week as traders saw minimal threat to global oil supplies from the start of a military campaign which they saw as likely to end swiftly.
