Oil prices pushed higher and briefly topped 60 dollars a barrel Monday as a cold wave in the US Midwest and Northeast helped keep up the rally in energy prices.

The January crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose as high as 60.80 dollars a barrel before closing at 59.91 dollars, up 59 cents on the day. The contract has advanced more than 8 percent since hitting a five-month low of 55.40 dollars last week.

Petroleum products futures ended mixed, with January gasoline down 2.16 cents at 1.5898 dollars a gallon and January heating oil up 1.76 cents at 1.7896 dollars a gallon.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for January delivery gained 68 cents to 57.73 dollars per barrel in closing deals.

Monday's rally came as a cold front moved into the Northeast and Midwest, with highs in some cities hovering in the sub- freezing temperatures. The cold weather boosted demand for winter fuels in those regions, raising worries about tighter supplies later in the season.

The Midwest and the Northeast are the key US natural gas and heating oil markets, respectively.

Government figures show heating fuel stockpiles are now more than 12 percent higher than at the same stage last year. Recent government data have showed strong US economic growth and a sharp recovery in oil demand from a slump suffered in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The data have added to the newfound bullishness in the energy market, analysts said.

Oil prices hit a record 70.85 dollars per barrel on August 30 in New York after Hurricane Katrina severely disrupted energy production in the US Gulf of Mexico. However, they then fell by about 20 percent after unusually mild US weather during October and much of November.