LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Lloyds of London [LOL.UL] Chief Executive Richard Ward urged insurers to be disciplined as he prepared to unveil a record 16 billion pounds ($30.95 billion) in underwriting capacity for the year, the Financial Times said.

On Monday, Lloyd's is due to reveal that its underwriting capacity would increase 8 percent in 2007 from last year's 14.8 billion pounds, according to the newspaper.

"It is very important we focus on discipline," Ward told the FT in an interview. "We are not celebrating that the capacity is up.

"We are cautious about an increase in capacity given the market conditions, and therefore we need to work closely with the market to ensure that [businesses] are able to deliver the profitability they are forecasting in the current market conditions."

The rise in capacity demonstrated that prices for insurance and reinsurance in areas of the market exposed to U.S. hurricanes continued to increase, Ward was quoted in the newspaper as saying. ($1=.5170 Pound)

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