Oil prices slid on Tuesday, mirroring heavy losses on European equity markets in the wake of weak eurozone economic data and amid an easing of tensions over the Iran nuclear crisis, traders said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, shed $1.91 to $104.81 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for April lost $1.76 to $122.04 in late London deals.

"Crude oil prices retreated... following disappointing GDP data from the eurozone," said Sucden Financial Research analyst Myrto Sokou.

European stock markets also fell sharply and the euro slipped versus the dollar after an EU official spoke of a "mild recession" in the eurozone.

A new eurozone growth estimate of 1.4 percent for 2011 was meanwhile issued by the EU statistics office Eurostat, which had previously estimated 1.5-percent growth, following an expansion of 1.9 percent in 2010.

The overall picture pointed to a double-dip recession within three years in the eurozone, which has been hit by uncertainty arising from a debt crisis that is now easing.

Oil prices also slumped after global powers offered to resume in coming weeks long-stalled talks with Tehran over its contested nuclear drive, seen as key to defusing tension between Israel and large crude exporter Iran.

"On behalf of China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, I have offered to resume talks with Iran on the nuclear issue," said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Barack Obama on Monday that Israel must remain the "master of its fate" in a firm defence of his right to mount a unilateral strike on Iran.

Israeli leaders are worried that despite their potency, increasingly tough US and European sanctions on Iran and its central bank and vital petroleum industry will not convince Tehran to renounce a nuclear arsenal.

Israel is eager to move quickly and decisively using a military strike before Tehran reaches a point when it could quickly produce weapons-grade uranium.

Iran has insisted that its nuclear programme is designed solely for peaceful civilian purposes.

burs/bcp/wai