Oil prices rose on Friday on hopes that the Greek debt crisis could be resolved and as Chinese stocks rebounded, but a fall in China's car sales weighed on the crude benchmarks.

Greece has laid a cash-for-reforms proposal in front of creditors, raising hopes that a deal could be reached this weekend.

In China, the CSI300 stock index was up more than 6 percent, extending gains from the previous session after the government launched measures to halt a 30 percent fall in prices since June.

Front-month U.S. crude futures were trading around 90 cents higher at $53.68 per barrel at 0721 GMT, although prices were nearly 6 percent down on the week.

Front-month Brent crude was up almost a dollar at $59.56 a barrel, over 1 percent below the end of last week.

Traders said that China's slowing economy and car sales were preventing bigger price rises.

Auto sales in China dipped for the third straight month, falling 2.3 percent in June from a year earlier to 1.8 million vehicles, industry data showed on Friday, prompting a halving of its annual sales growth forecast to 3 percent.

Reuters data showed the three-month fall was the longest such stretch since the financial crisis of 2008.

Chinese steel and iron ore prices also hit record lows this week, reflecting China's soft demand for basic materials.

Analysts, though, still said China's oil imports would remain strong as it builds up strategic reserves.

"Oil demand growth this year has been disconnected from the fundamental realities of China's growth trajectory," Michal Meidan of consultancy China Matters said in a report.

"The rapid increase in China's apparent oil demand growth has been due first and foremost to stockpiling, while real demand has also been supported somewhat by low oil prices."

Beyond China and Greece, traders were also waiting to hear whether a compromise would be reached between world powers and Iran that could lead to increased oil flows if sanctions are lifted, although the U.S. government said overnight that it was in no rush to reach a deal.

Yet Friday's gains were unlikely to extend much further as global supplies remain plentiful and economic growth slows.

"We see it as quite likely ... for Brent to range between $55 and $60 per barrel for the remainder of the year," JBC Energy said in a report.

The International Monetary Fund trimmed its forecast for global economic growth for this year by 0.2 percentage points to 3.3 percent, based largely on a U.S. slowdown.

Top exporter Saudi Arabia continues to keep output and export supply high, maintaining fully contracted volumes to Asia in August.

Source: www.reuters.com

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