Emerging markets are driving unexpectedly strong growth of world oil demand this year with a big boost from China, despite a fall in advanced economies, according to the International Energy Agency.

The IEA warned that demand for oil, a strong indicator of economic activity, would not recover in advanced economies overall this year, but was signalling an "astonishing" growth trend of 28 per cent in China.

But it raised its forecast for global demand in 2010 to 86.6 million barrels per day from its projection last month of 86.5 mbd - a 1.8 per cent increase from 2009 demand levels.

The agency said that demand in the area covered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development remained "persistently weak", and would fall by 0.3 per cent this year.

The OECD groups 30 developed economies including Britain, France, Germany, Japan and the United States, which account for by far the major part of global economic output.

The agency said in its monthly review of energy markets: "This year's global oil demand growth will be driven entirely by non-OECD countries, with non-OECD Asia alone representing over half of total growth."

Demand in developing nations will rise by 4.3 per cent in 2010, offsetting the 0.3-per cent contraction in the OECD, the group's fifth year of decline in a row, the IEA said.

European demand for oil products sank by eight per cent in January compared to the same month last year owing to sharp drops in heating and fuel oil despite a bitterly cold winter, the IEA said.

The snow blizzard disrupted road travel, thus partly contributing to a fall in fuel demand in January, the IEA said.

The revised estimate for non-OECD countries was almost entirely concentrated in China where apparent demand surged by 28 per cent year-on-year in January according to preliminary data, the IEA said.