Spanish fuel protests taper off

Spain's five-day-old lorry driver fuel protest strike appears to be losing steam.

Traders at Madrid's main wholesale market, Mercamadrid, said supplies were more abundant but still not back to 100%.

Luis Alberto Carrillon, president of a fruit wholesalers association, said: "The strike is winding down," he told Associated Press Television News.

The strike is by self-employed drivers who make up a small sector of the Spanish haulage industry.

They want the government to establish minimum, guaranteed rates for their services, and say otherwise they cannot compete with large trucking companies, which are better able to cope with diesel fuel prices that have risen 36% in a year.

The strike had led to shortages and panic-buying of meat, fresh produce and fuel.

But the government, accused of being slow to respond, deployed riot police on Wednesday to clear two border crossings with France and roads leading into Madrid. It also strengthened police escorts for drivers who did not back the strike and wanted to work.

The government said roads were completely clear on Thursday but that many drivers were reluctant to work, fearing violence by pickets who slashed tyres and smashed windows on the first day of the strike.

Many taxi drivers in the Catalonia region followed a strike call. But in the rest of Spain the stoppage was called off after drivers won concessions on demands for fare rises.