President Bush says he is prepared to consider a variety of options to ease the pain to the U.S. economy if Iraq's 30-day cut-off of oil exports causes world oil prices to rise sharply. 

In an interview printed in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, Mr. Bush refused to rule out tapping the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve or seeking a reduction in gasoline taxes if necessary. 

In London trading Tuesday, the price of a barrel of crude oil fell more than two percent to just over $26 a barrel - after rising nearly four percent on Monday. 

The drop comes amid optimism that tensions in the Middle East may ease, after Israel began withdrawing from two towns in the West Bank. Also, Saudi Arabia has pledged to replace sales of oil from Iraq. 

A separate event that could still affect world oil prices is a nationwide strike Tuesday in Venezuela - the world's fourth-largest producer of oil and a major supplier to the United States. 

Oil prices have risen sharply recently amid increased demand from recovering economies and OPEC cutbacks in production. 

Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters. 

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