A customer pumps gas at a U.S. service station. Rising oil prices are squeezing consumers worldwide. (Paul Sakuma/Associated Press)

The dispute about the reason for higher oil prices is expected to be the central issue when representatives from up to 35 producing and consuming countries meet Sunday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi government believes that speculators have contributed to prices "that are unjustified by market fundamentals." The U.S. position is that suppliers, such as Saudi Arabia, are not producing enough to keep up with surging demand.

"There is no evidence that we can find that speculators are driving prices," U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told reporters in Jeddah on Saturday.

Media reports Saturday said a draft of the summit's final communiqué calls for more transparency in financial markets and monitoring of investment funds, which some observers believe have driven oil prices higher.

The U.S. is expected to reject that idea.

Saudi Arabia announced Saturday that it will raise oil production by two per cent in July to help cut prices, which have doubled in the past year.

The rising prices have caused protests and are squeezing consumers all over the world. "It makes it tough to live," a Lebanese man said.

Saudi Arabia said it invited the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries members as well as Canada, the United States, Russia, Norway, Mexico, Brazil, Britain, Germany, France, Japan, China, India and South Africa, international organizations and more than 25 major oil companies.

Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn will represent Canada.