Oil prices up $1

OIL prices raced higher on Monday as signals grew that Al Qaeda was behind the Madrid bombings. London Brent crude jumped $1, or 3.1 per cent, to $33.24 a barrel while US light crude prices were $1.08 higher at $37.27 a barrel. Even before Madrid, crude had hit the highest level since just before the US invasion of Iraq, driven up by strong Chinese demand growth and low inventories in the US, which guzzles 20 mn barrels of oil a day. (Reuters)