New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, rose 66 cents to $88.06 a barrel in the afternoon. Brent North Sea crude for December delivery gained 65 cents to $110.21. Traders were cheered by comments from European leaders after a weekend meeting convened to hammer out a plan to tackle the region's debt crisis, said Jonathan Barratt, managing director of Commodity Broking Services in Sydney. "We're still waiting for an outcome... but there's optimism that the outcome will be positive," he told AFP. "Given the way equities markets have reacted (to the talks), there's more optimism out there which will result in more demand for crude." Major Asian bourses, including in Hong Kong, Japan and Australia surged in afternoon trade, lifted by positive remarks by European leaders at the Brussels talks. Officials including IMF chief Christine Lagarde hailed the "good progress" made at the summit aimed at overcoming a crisis that threatens to pitch the world into a fresh recession. Notably, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel seemed to have resolved previous differences over boosting the EU bailout fund, telling reporters there was "a quite broad agreement" on the main sticking point. However, presidents and prime ministers left with few concrete details, vowing to reveal all at a second gathering on Wednesday.