WRAPUP 3-Fuel price protests in Asia and Europe, two dead

Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:48pm EDT
 
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* Pickets die in Spain and Portugal

* Huge demonstration in South Korea over government policies

* Malaysia PM offers package to placate key allies

* Food and fuel supplies threatened in Spain

By Ben Harding

MADRID, June 10 (Reuters) - Asian consumers protested over soaring oil prices on Tuesday and in southern Europe two pickets supporting truck drivers' strikes died.

Spaniards fear a strike that has disrupted deliveries could cause shortages and they are stockpiling fuel and food. Traders at Madrid's main food wholesale market said supplies of fresh food would start to run out soon.

Portuguese drivers have joined the strike and there were also protests in France over the impact of record oil prices, now at highs of more than $139 per barrel.

One striking truck driver was killed near a Grenada market in southern Spain. In Portugal, a picket died as he tried to stop a truck on a road north of the capital Lisbon.

Diesel has risen to 1.30 euros/litre from 0.95 euros a year ago, pressuring European Union governments to help heavy fuel users such as truck and taxi drivers, fishermen and farmers.

In Asia, governments are struggling to prevent rising prices making the burden on the public so heavy that it threatens political stability.

South Korea's cabinet offered to resign in the face of huge street protests on Tuesday about the policies of its unpopular President Lee Myung-bak.

He said Asia's fourth-largest economy could be heading into crisis because of surging resource prices and slowing growth. Producer price inflation in the world's fifth-largest crude oil importer was near a 10-year high last month.

South Korean truck drivers voted on Monday to strike over rising fuel prices, ignoring a $10.2 billion government aid package designed to cushion the impact of the fuel cost surge.

"We are faced with a 'resources crisis' coming next only to the oil crisis in the 1970s and the financial crisis in the 1990s," the president said in a speech.  Continued...

 
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