Oil prices weakened further in Asian trade as supply concerns eased after the US and its industrial partners agreed to tap emergency reserves in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, dealers said. These moves to draw now emergency reserves are however only a short-term relief measure and will do little to solve the market's supply concerns with the northern hemisphere's winter season now just months away, they said. At 2.30 pm (0630 GMT), New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October, was down 27 cents to 65.69 usd a barrel from its close of 65.96 in the US overnight when it dropped by 1.61 usd. Yesterday, Japan said it would release 7.3 mln barrels of private-sector oil reserves to markets in the coming month after several other major economies announced similar plans. "Prices are (lower) and doing what they should do in the wake of the International Energy Agency's response to the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina," said US-based Alaron Trading analyst Phil Flynn. "The response in terms of aid to people in the US Gulf region may have been slow but this cannot be said for the response by members of the IEA. Everything that could be done has been done," he said. In the long-term, prices will likely stay above 60 usd because global supplies remain tight and demand, especially for refined products such as heating oil, will pick up when the northern hemisphere's winter season starts in December, dealers said. "The fact that the world has to dip into its strategic reserves to try to meet demand, particularly in the US, is an indication that the market is tight," said Victor Shum, an analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz in Singapore. "There is a limit to the reserves ... the supply situation is still tight globally," he said. The US government has already released 9 mln barrels of crude oil from its 700-mln-barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to selected companies in need. The hurricane made landfall on the US Gulf Coast on August 29, thrashing the southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The death toll is unknown but is expected to reach thousands. The October contract hit a record-high 70.85 usd per barrel last Tuesday after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. US markets have calmed since then, helped by the government intervention and signs of renewed activity along the hurricane-hit Gulf of Mexico. Three oil refineries on the Gulf Coast were restarting operations and another four were expected to do so soon, the US Department of Energy said Tuesday. Six refineries in the states of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi remained shut. Another six were operating with oil supplied from the US government's SPR.