French truckers blockade to protest high fuel costs

French truckers blockaded several wholesale petrol depots yesterday to demand government help to cope with surging fuel costs.

Organised by Unostra, the truckers' association which has successfully orchestrated disruption in the past, the campaign targeted strategic sites and aimed to drum up support among other professions hit by the oil prices' surge to record highs, such as the agriculture sector and taxi drivers.

"We have launched a national call to mobilise. Blockades and alliances with other professional sectors are in the works," Catherine Pons, president of Unostra, told Reuters.

"The movement will last as long as it takes. It will spread, it will blossom," she said, adding that French hauliers had faced a 30 per cent rise in fuel prices between 2003 and last year.

Yesterday, truckers targeted a petrol depot near Mulhouse in eastern France and other sites just outside nearby Dijon, and in the Aude region in southern France.

Police later broke up the blockades at the sites near Dijon. "We've been moved on, but the mobilisation remains intact," said Ms Pons. "We are asking the government to think about all possible measures."

She called for a reduction in the tax levied on refined oil products so that it was closer to the European average. Unostra is also demanding a reduction in employers' social charges.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said earlier this month his government would not reintroduce a floating tax system used by the previous Socialist-led administration to offset the impact of oil surges that fed through to petrol pumps in 2000.

He said any oil tax revenues generated beyond the sum planned in this year's budget would instead be handed back to consumers.

In 2000, the Socialist government infuriated France's European Union partners when it awarded significant tax breaks to protesting truckers. The move fanned similar demands in other countries.