The Associated Press
Thursday, November 22, 2007; 6:43 AM

SINGAPORE -- European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Thursday that countries should invest more in renewable energy to mitigate the impact of expensive fossil fuels such as crude oil.

"It's quite obvious that the prices of oil and gas and fossil energies are indeed creating new scenarios," Barroso said at a news briefing following meetings with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore.

"This is one of the reasons why we should not be so dependent on fossil energies," Barosso said. "We should invest more on renewable energies and we should also try to accelerate (a) transition to a low carbon economy because this is crucial to understand what is going to happen in the global economy in the future."

European Union leaders have promised to cut CO2 releases by 20 percent by 2020 and say they will push this to 30 percent if other industrialized regions _ particularly the United States _ do the same. They said this is necessary to keep global temperature increases in check.

Driven by strong global demand amid tight supplies, crude oil prices have risen nearly 60 percent since the start of the year. A barrel of light, sweet crude was trading at $97.35 a barrel Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after rising on Wednesday to a record $99.29 a barrel.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said high energy prices were a concern to Asian governments because of their impact on low-income groups.

"Many adjustments will have to take place in these economies and there's a lot of significant social hardship which is inflicted, particularly in Asian countries, which governments have to worry about and do something about," Lee said.