The Iraqi minister for oil has slammed President Bush’s claim that the recent decision by Saudi Arabia to increase oil production will help lower the price of crude oil.

This from Bloomberg:

The oil market is “well supplied,” and prices are being driven by “speculative flows” and not supply and demand, [the Iraqi oil minister] said today in an interview in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, at the annual World Economic Forum.

Where is ANWAR? This is what thousands of investors are searching the internet for following President Bush’s attempt to persuade Americans that high oil prices are due to the fact that Congress has “repeatedly blocked environmentally safe exploration” there.

For those confused by Bush’s statements today, ANWR (the correct spelling) stands for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Bush claimed today that Congress’s refusal to open the reserve for exploration is a major contributor to sky-high oil prices.

Amid a global equities sell off, president George Bush says the the US is “on top” of the current economic crisis.

Investors have failed to respond to Bush’s optimism, however, focusing instead on the collapse of Bear Stearns, with markets from New York to Tokyo recording heavy losses.