Spanish truck strike weakens, deliveries resume

MADRID (Reuters) - Deliveries to Spanish wholesale food markets began returning to normal and factories started to get back to work on Friday as a truck strike over fuel costs began to weaken, industry officials said.

Following police action to clear pickets from highways, trucks made big deliveries of fresh produce to Madrid's Mercamadrid wholesale food market, averting the danger of the capital's supermarkets running out of stocks, vegetable and meat wholesale associations said.

Car factories around Spain also began preparing to get back to work after many were forced to close due to a shortage of supplies caused by the strike by 75,000 truckers which began on Sunday night, according to auto association ANFAC.

Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero deployed 25,000 police to break pickets blocking highways and allow working truckers to pass. He promised "zero tolerance" for violent strikers after incidents in which picketers intimidated or attacked vehicles trying to get through.

The government persuaded most truckers to go back to work with promises of tax breaks but has refused to accede to demands for minimum haulage charges.

About 6 percent of Spain's truckers are still on strike.

(Reporting by Jason Webb and Robert Hetz; Editing by Janet Lawrence)