Oil approaches $61 on weather, OPEC.

(From AFX Europe (Focus))

WASHINGTON (AFX) - Oil prices rose toward $61 a barrel Tuesday on concerns about winter weather, a December OPEC meeting and violence in Iraq.

A decline in the U.S. dollar, the currency in which oil is priced worldwide, has also helped to push crude-oil higher, analysts said. However, longer-term, the falling dollar might actually have the opposite effect, since some oil producing nations may be encouraged to pump more crude in an effort to keep their petroleum revenues from falling.

In less than two weeks, the front-month crude-oil futures contract has climbed by more than $5 a barrel, but prices are still trading within …