WASHINGTON - As oil climbed above $108 a barrel on Monday, Delta Air Lines chief executive Richard Anderson condemned federal officials for failing to help restrain the fuel costs that are eroding airline profits.

"We don't have an energy policy in this country, and we need one," Anderson said. "Jawboning OPEC is not an energy policy."

In his address at the Federal Aviation Administration's annual industry forecast conference, Anderson refused to answer questions about the possible combination of Delta and Northwest airlines.

But he had plenty to say about his frustrations with oil, which cost about $70 a barrel just six months ago. Now it has reached a record $108 a barrel, driving up jet fuel prices and undermining airline profitability.

"We really don't have any conservation measures in place" to help cool demand and lower prices, Anderson said. When it comes to moving towards energy independence, "we're several years behind the times."

Anderson said that if policy makers were serious about conserving fuel, they would be installing new air-traffic control equipment and systems more quickly to reduce flight delays.

"When your average taxi-out time on a good day is 15 to 20 minutes, that's a very significant" amount of fuel being wasted by planes idling on the runway, he said.

Many industry analysts say higher fuel prices will increase the pressure on carriers to merge so that they cut costs and increase ticket-pricing power. But the possible Delta-Northwest deal, which would create the world's largest airline, has been on hold as pilot unions at the two carriers try to resolve concerns about job seniority.

Separately at the FAA event, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said the federal government was capping the number of flights during peak hours at New Jersey's Newark Liberty Airport to ease flight delays in the New York area.

"We have an obligation to travelers to do everything in our power to prevent a repeat of the horrors they experienced last summer," she said. Rather than require cuts in airline service, the government is pushing airlines to shift departure times to less busy periods so that "they just will be more reasonably spaced."

Starting in early May, Newark will be limited to 83 flights per hour during peak periods, down from about 95 flights per hour during last summer's peak.

The airline industry opposes caps, insisting that the way to end delays is to increase airport capacity and improve flight paths.