Brent oil price up ahead of OPEC meeting

In London, Brent crude was up $1.04 to $67.86 on the ICE Futures exchange, helped by rising equity markets, a weaker US dollar and expectations that OPEC will keep its members' output levels steady at this week's meeting.

Trading volume was light because of Monday's Labor Day holiday in the US. With the dollar losing ground against other currencies, commodities like oil and gold were more attractive to investors looking for a hedge against inflation.

The euro bought $1.4328, up from $1.4309 late Friday in New York, while the British pound rose to $1.6404 from $1.6397. Surging stock markets also supported oil, as London's FTSE 100 gained 1.6 percent, while Germany's DAX and France's CAC-40 both were up around 1.4 percent.

Traders are eyeing Wednesday's meeting of OPEC in Vienna. OPEC President Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos, who is also Angola's oil minister, said last week that the 12-member group will likely keep output quotas unchanged.