French fishermen end strike in the Mediterranean

French fishermen from Mediterranean ports on Monday ended a three-week strike as truckers in the southwest staged fresh protests against soaring fuel prices.

"All of the fleets from the Mediterranean ports went back to work this morning, but we remain very vigilant," said Ange Natoli, a representative of the Mediterranean fishing fleets.

French fishermen have suspended their protest ahead of a June 23-24 meeting of EU fisheries ministers that is to tackle the latest crisis in European fisheries over skyrocketing fuel prices.

Fleets in France's biggest fishing port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais and Dunkirk last week called off their strike pending the outcome of the talks in Brussels.

French truckers struggling with high fuel costs staged fresh protests near the Spanish border and in the southwest, demanding government action to stem the price hike.

About 15 trucks from the southern city of Perpignan disrupted traffic at several border posts and preventing trucks from crossing, causing a tailback of some 10 kilometres (six miles) on both sides of the border, an AFP journalist reported.

Some 200 long-haul trucks were to converge on the four main motorways leading into Bordeaux early Monday, drive around the ring road before heading into the southwest city, said Jean-Pierre Morlin, president of the European trucking organisation for the Aquitaine region.

"We are demanding immediate measures" to counter the impact of high fuel prices, said Morlin.

The French truckers' action "is aimed at protesting the price of fuel and to make authorities aware of the need to harmonize the price of diesel in Europe," said Roland Bacou, head of a national trucking union for the Languedoc-Roussillon region.

The protests were the latest in weeks of demonstrations first launched by French fishermen to call for government help to deal with soaring fuel costs caused by historically high oil prices.

About 50 farmers ended their blockade of a national road after spending the night at the roadblocks, said the regional traffic information centre.