Oil rose on Tuesday on hopes a strategy being drawn up by the European Central Bank will help tackle the euro zone debt crisis and was supported by ongoing tension in the Middle East and tight North Sea supply.

Some investors were optimistic that the ECB could take strong action to ease Spanish and Italian borrowing costs, even though it poured cold water on a report suggesting it was considering buying bonds of euro zone countries if their borrowing costs breached a certain level.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker this week to try and secure more funding from the European Union, International Monetary Fund and ECB, despite falling behind on its targets to cut debt.

Brent crude oil was trading up 64 cents $114.34 a barrel at 0840 GMT, and has jumped from below $90 at the end of June, propelled by maintenance in the North Sea and increased fear of military conflict between Iran and Israel.