The two houses of the Nigerian parliament have agreed on a benchmark oil price of $59 a barrel for the 2008 budget, compared with a government proposal of $53.83/barrel, and assumed oil production of 2.45 million barrels a day.

However, the two houses approved slightly different versions of the budget, both representing a sharp year-on-year increase in spending.

The Senate approved spending of 2.898 trillion naira ($25.01 billion), according to documents made available to AFP, an increase of 26% over 2007 spending of NGN2.309 trillion.

The House of Representatives approved the sum of NGN2.945 trillion, an increase of 28%.

A joint committee of the two chambers is now expected to reconcile the differences before sending the document for the president's approval.