NEW YORK-Oil prices pushed high­er on yes­ter­day, on pace to post its eighth con­sec­u­tive month­ly rise, lift­ed by the weak dol­lar and tur­moil in North Africa and the Mid­dle East that off­set con­cerns about slow­ing US eco­nom­ic growth and the threat to de­mand from high prices.On the last trad­ing day of April, both Brent and US crude were head­ing for an eighth con­sec­u­tive month of gains.The US string would be the longest run of month­ly in­creas­es since 1983 when the light sweet crude con­tract was in­tro­duced on the New York Mer­can­tile Ex­change, ac­cord­ing to Reuters da­ta.

Traders al­so eyed US front-month May gaso­line and heat­ing oil fu­tures that ex­pire at the end of yes­ter­day's ses­sion.Both US and Brent crude bounced from ear­ly dips af­ter eu­ro zone da­ta showed the in­fla­tion rate rose fur­ther above the Eu­ro­pean Cen­tral Bank's tar­get in April, help­ing push the dol­lar in­dex against a bas­ket of ma­jor cur­ren­cies .DXY to a three-year low.Brent crude for June de­liv­ery rose 61 cents to US$125.63 a bar­rel by 12.24 pm. Brent's 2011 peak of US$127.02 was reached on April 11.US crude for June rose 54 cents to US$113.40. (Reuters)