Consumers shrugged off higher gasoline prices in April and sent a widely watched barometer of consumer confidence to its highest level in almost four years, a private research group said yesterday.

But the New York-based Conference Board warned that if fuel prices continue to rise, it would cast a pall on consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of all economic activity in America.

The Conference Board said that its consumer confidence index rose to 109.6, up from a revised 107.5 in March. April’s reading was the highest since the index touched 110.3 in May 2002. Analysts had expected a reading of 106.4.

Confidence has been on an upswing since November in the aftermath of the Gulf hurricanes, except for a sharp dip in February when short-lived pessimism over the labor market soured consumer sentiment.

“Improving present-day conditions continue to boost consumers’ spirits,” the director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center, Lynn Franco, said in a statement. “Recent improvements in the labor market have been a major driver behind the rise in confidence in early 2006. Looking ahead, consumers are not as pessimistic as they were last month.”

Ms. Franco added, however, that “while prices at the pump have yet to impact confidence, further increases could dampen consumers’ mood.”

The component of the consumer confidence index that measures how consumers feel now about economic conditions rose to 136.2 from 133.3. Another component, which measures consumers’ outlook over the next six months, improved to 91.9 from 90.3 last month.