European fishermen, truckers protest over fuel

LONDON (Reuters) - Spanish fishermen handed out free fish while European truckers and seamen from Portugal to Bulgaria blocked roads and ports on Friday, demanding government action to curb rising fuel prices.

Thailand became the latest Asian state to buckle under pressure, its state-run refineries agreeing to supply cheaper diesel to private bus operators after a day of strikes.

In Madrid, a crowd of mostly elderly men and women scrambled for fish being handed out from the back of two small trucks near the capital's Fisheries Ministry.

The action was designed to show that with fuel prices at their current level, fishermen were practically giving away fish, Javier Garat, secretary-general of fishermen's union Cepesca said.

"This situation is unsustainable," said Elias Eijo, 38, one of four brothers who operate a fishing boat in Galicia, on the Atlantic coast of northwestern Spain.

He said fuel costs and meager fish prices driven down by imports meant crew-members wages had plummeted and he and his brothers had no money to repair their boat.

"Right now we're earning nothing. How do we live? We don't, that's why we are here," he said pointing to the ministry, shrouded in colored fumes from protesters' smoke bombs.

Some fishermen threaten to block harbors, as their French counterparts have done. Truck drivers are threatening a strike from June 8 and taxi drivers also plan protests.

More than 100 truck drivers converged into a convoy on a ring road of the Bulgarian capital Sofia on Friday demanding excise duty rebates.

Truckers, farmers and fishermen across Europe have launched protests at the climbing cost of oil. U.S. crude climbed back over $127 a barrel on Friday.

France has called on the Group of Eight industrialized nations to act together to restore oil prices to a lower level, warning that economic growth was under threat.

OPERATION SNAIL

In Asia Indonesia, Taiwan and Sri Lanka have raised state-regulated fuel prices, forced into unpopular action by the unsustainable cost of subsidies.

India is expected to take a decision on prices in the next two to three days. China, using nearly three times as much fuel as India, was unlikely to act until after the Olympics.

Petrol stations in at least three major Chinese coastal cities were rationing diesel, drivers said.

"I've never seen so many trucks queuing for fuel like this before," said one driver on her way home in southern Beijing.

Portugal's fleet of some 7,000 fishing boats remained at dock on Friday and fishermen threatened to continue their stoppage until the government acted.

"We have reached our limit. Neither fishing companies nor fishermen have any income," Humberto Jorge, head of a regional association of fishing companies, was quoted as saying by news agency Lusa.

French truckers organized two "operation snail" protests, driving very slowly in convoy to curb traffic flow. Fishermen from several Normandy ports converged on Le Havre port in the morning to blockade it completely.

In the western port of La Rochelle, a fisherman locked himself in a port security office, fired several shots with a pistol and threatened to kill himself. Witnesses said he was angry some fishing boats had decided to abandon a strike and were going to sea. Police intervened and no-one was hurt.

Local fishermen's groups in the Brittany ports of Lorient and Le Guilvinec decided to end their strike. In other ports, strikes continued despite growing divisions among fishermen.

Germany's BGL federation of goods transport and logistics firms urged the German government to cut fuel taxes.

"German transport and logistics firms have their backs to the wall due to exploding diesel costs," a BGL statement said.

(Editing by Ralph Boulton)