DOHA, Qatar — Oil cartel OPEC decided to cut production by a greater-than-expected 1.2 million barrels a day yesterday in an effort to halt a slide in oil prices, and some members indicated they were open to further cuts.

United Arab Emirates oil minister Mohammed bin Dhaen al-Hamili made the announcement at a news conference after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' oil ministers held an emergency meeting in Qatar's capital, Doha.

Support for the move by the de facto leader of the cartel, Saudi Arabia oil minister Ali Naimi, shows the group's unity on the issue of price, said one analyst after the announcement.

"If the market doesn't stabilize, they are going to continue to cut production," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. "Prices from $57 to $60 is an area they are willing to defend."

Prices have declined more than 25 percent since mid-July. After the announcement, a barrel of light sweet crude rose 54 cents to $59.04 on the New York Mercantile Exchange from its close earlier yesterday at $58.50.

UAE's Al-Hamili did not specify the amount of production that each member country would cut, but said the reductions will affect all countries except Iraq. It is to take effect Nov. 1.

The cuts will come from actual production levels, he said, and are more than the 1 million barrels a day called for earlier by cartel members.

OPEC is currently producing about 29.5 million barrels of oil per day.

The cuts are the first time OPEC has trimmed its output since December 2004, when oil traded slightly above $40 a barrel and the cartel lowered its official production quota by 1 million barrels a day.

However, many observers expect further production cuts soon.

"I'm not sure that a million barrels is going to be enough" of a cut to keep oil prices from further declines, said Michael Fitzpatrick, a New York-based oil broker at Fimat USA.

OPEC is scheduled to meet again in December in Nigeria and many analysts believe a further cut could be implemented then. "They better act quickly and decisively," Fitzpatrick said.

The organization's president, Edmund Daukoru of Nigeria, said talk of the possible need of a further 500,000-barrel cut was "in line with my own thinking," Dow Jones Newswires reported.