NEW YORK (Reuters) -
Crude oil prices fell more than 5.4
percent on Friday in the biggest one-day slide since 2004 as
dealers turned their focus to rising supply levels and
weakening global demand.

A rebound in the U.S. dollar encouraged the sell-off,
applying downward pressure across the commodities markets by
weakening the purchasing power of buyers using other
currencies, dealers said.

The slide adds to a more than 20 percent fall in the price
of crude since mid-July and could increase the chance oil
cartel OPEC will cut official production limits when the group
meets in Vienna on September 9.

U.S. crude fell $6.59, or 5.4 percent, to settle at $114.59
a barrel -- the biggest fall in percentage terms since December
27, 2004. London Brent crude fell $6.24 to $113.92 a barrel.

"People who were buying yesterday are taking profits
today," said Peter Beutel, analyst at consultancy Cameron
Hanover. "There is also renewed technical selling and talk
again of demand destruction. The dollar is strong again too."

The declines Friday were encouraged by two reports -- one
showing an uptick in OPEC crude oil output and another showing
an expected decline in U.S. travel over the September 1 Labor
Day holiday weekend as high fuel prices hit consumers.

Industry consultant Petrologistics said on Friday OPEC oil
output was expected to rise in August by 450,000 barrels per
day, to 32.95 million bpd, a factor that could further beef up
inventory levels in consumer nations.

Meanwhile, the U.S. auto and travel group AAA said that
Labor Day holiday travel was expected to fall this year by the
largest amount in at least eight years as consumers struggle
with higher gasoline prices and airfares.

Concerns high energy costs are taking a toll on global fuel
demand have played a big role in oil's sharp descent from peaks
above $147 a barrel in mid-July. But oil prices remain up about
15 percent so far this year.

Friday's losses came after a big climb in prices earlier in
the week that had been supported by rising tension between the
United States and Russia, the world's second biggest oil
producer.

Russia said this week it would respond with more than just
a diplomatic protest to a U.S. deal with Poland to station
parts of a U.S. missile defense shield on Polish soil.

Relations between Russia and the West had already been
strained by Moscow's military intervention in Georgia, a
conflict that has already disrupted rail shipments of Azeri oil
through the region.

Meanwhile, operations on the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan oil
pipeline were ramping up with a cargo of Azeri crude scheduled
to be loaded in Turkey early next week -- the first cargo since
an explosion on the line in Turkey August 5.

(Additional reporting by Bate Felix and Santosh Menon in
London and Felicia Loo in Singapore; Editing by Christian
Wiessner)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
U.S. companies would be able to file
financial results using international accounting standards
according to a timetable U.S. securities regulators will
propose next week.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will meet on
Wednesday to review a long-anticipated plan to move toward
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and away
from U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

About 110 countries use or plan to use the international
accounting standards which are considered more flexible than
GAAP.

The SEC in November voted to allow foreign companies to
submit their financials in IFRS instead of having to conform to
GAAP, a time-consuming and costly process.

The SEC is considering a timetable, or "roadmap" in its
terminology, that could converge the two systems and eventually
allow some U.S. companies to file in IFRS.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke have applauded the moves toward a common
set of international standards, which they said could attract
more foreign companies to the United States.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said earlier this week he
expects a final rule this autumn.

"Our focus is on laying out a roadmap," Cox told reporters
after a news conference on Tuesday. "It will be an important
milestone, but it will be one step in what will undoubtedly be
a long journey."

The proposal will be subjected to a comment period, an
unusual move for the SEC, which typically adopts timetables
without extensive feedback. Cox said the comment period is
needed "given the significance of the changes under
consideration."

Critics have cautioned U.S. regulators from moving too fast
to IFRS, saying it could create lax standards and that there
could be a steep learning curve for the creation and
interpretation of IFRS financial statements in the United
States.

(Reporting by Karey Wutkowski; Editing by Daniel Trotta)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
Any effort by the Treasury
Department to backstop Fannie Mae (FNM.N) and Freddie Mac
(FRE.N) would seek to maintain the companies as
shareholder-owned enterprises, a source familiar with Treasury
thinking said on Friday.

The source said that a cornerstone of any government
intervention would be to maintain housing finance companies
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as private enterprises.

Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have plummeted this
week after news reports that the federal government was poised
to nationalize the mortgage-finance companies.

(Reporting by Patrick Rucker; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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