European governments sought to head off protests over soaring fuel prices on Tuesday with more steps to help hard-hit businesses such as truckers and farmers, and appeals to oil-rich Opec countries to open their taps.
Petrol retailers in Britain urged motorists to remain calm amid sporadic reports of "sold out" signs at fuel stations and panic-buying prompted by media speculation about the danger of road blockades similar to crippling protests in 2000.
French President Jacques Chirac demanded deeper cuts in the cost of fuel at the pump from oil giants such as Total and BP, which are making bumper profits as world oil prices soar.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced tax breaks of about 30 million euros for farmers a day after isolated protests in the north on Monday by farmers on bicycles and truck drivers rolling their vehicles along motorways at a snail's pace.
In Britain, itself a producer of North Sea oil, finance minister Gordon Brown renewed calls on the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to boost output fast.
"Because this is, at root, a problem of demand outstripping supply, Opec must respond at its meeting on 19 September to rising demand by raising production," he said.
Hauliers have threatened protests from Wednesday onwards in Britain if the government does not come to the rescue, a move reminiscent of crippling and at times violent road and refinery blockades in Britain, France and Belgium in 2000.
While there have already been some protests by truck drivers in France and Belgium, there has been nothing major so far and some commentators said British truck drivers might be deterred by the risk of police confiscating driving licences
But those governments which earn windfalls in state taxes when fuel prices rise are keen to show voters they care, without depriving themselves of a major source of income.
Brown said at the weekend inflation was being kept in check unlike during the oil crises of the 1970s.
But consumer price indices across Europe on Tuesday showed energy costs were taking a toll and Brown warned against unions seeking big pay rises, at a time of hesitant ec onomic growth in Europe.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, facing an election on September 18, said he was worried by the rise in the cost of diesel and petrol, or gasoline. Governments, whose taxation of motor fuels often accounts for about 70 percent of the pump price, have offered concessions across Europe and are in parallel deflecting blame to the oil firms and oil-producing countries.
Poland says it will cut excise duty on petrol from September 15 until the end of the year, Hungary says it will cut the rate of value-added tax on car fuel, Belgium plans to reimburse some of the VAT on home-heating oil and France says millions of voters will get a 75-euro cheque if windfall tax receipts allow.
France's government agreed to tax breaks for truckers on Monday night and oil companies have been summoned to talks with Finance Minister Thierry Breton.
Villepin drew fire from the head of the opposition Socialist party for ditching a system that a previous left-wing government had introduced to prevent taxes rising in tandem with prices.
Chirac kept the pressure up on companies, telling finance minister Breton what he expected of them.
"He asked him (Breton) to do all what he can so that the companies commit themselves rapidly and wholeheartedly to investing in non-polluting energy and step up the pace of price cuts at the pump," government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said.
The oil companies say privately they are not to blame for the price of oil on world markets, which hit a record of more than $70 a barrel as hurricane Katrina smashed into refineries and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico recently, and that pump prices are cut when market prices ease.
BP announced cuts in its Austrian petrol and diesel prices in follow-up to cuts in France, and Shell was reported to have done likewise, though the companies said in private that this is part of a broader, routine cut in pump prices in Europe as the squeeze on world oil prices eases.
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