By Bruce Stanley
The Associated Press

ALGIERS, Algeria - OPEC decided Tuesday to cut its excess production of crude immediately and lower output quotas by 1 million barrels a day effective April 1. The surprise move means that consumers will continue to face high prices for gasoline and other refined products, analysts said.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries expects the combined cuts would reduce actual production by about 10 percent, or 2.5 million barrels a day.

OPEC agreed to the two-stage reduction in output to try to keep oil prices stable when warmer weather erodes demand in major importing countries.

The oil group has often urged its members to comply better with their agreed quotas, but its decision to make an additional cut in its official target of 24.5 million barrels was unexpected.

"As time goes on in the second quarter, we will see a drop in demand that will affect prices. If we don't do anything, there will be oversupply in the second quarter of about 3 million barrels'' a day, OPEC president Purnomo Yusgiantoro told a news conference at a government-run convention center in Algiers.

Ministers said they thought that their action would send a strong signal about OPEC's willingness to be proactive in managing crude supplies.

"Everybody will know that the organization is serious, and we would like to have a stable market," Libya's representative, Abdulhafid Mahmoud Zlitni, said, speaking after a closed-door meeting at which the delegates ratified their output decision.

Oil prices rose. North Sea Brent crude for March delivery was up 93 cents to settle at $30.04 in London, while March contracts for light sweet U.S. crude were up $1.04 to settle at $33.87 in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The April cut in production will bite deeper into consumers' wallets, said Jan Stuart of FIMAT USA, a New York brokerage.

"What this means is that consumers are going to carry on paying loads of money for their gasoline for quite some time," he said.

OPEC pumps about a third of the world's oil.