FACTBOX: Fuel protests in Europe

(Reuters) - Spanish fishermen handed out free fish in Madrid on Friday while thousands of fellow seamen blew whistles outside the Fisheries Ministry demanding help to combat soaring fuel costs.

Soaring oil prices are triggering protests across Europe.

Here are some details:

* BRITAIN:

-- Truckers converged on London in convoy on Tuesday, closing a busy main road and causing traffic backlogs.

-- Similar protests took place in Wales. Welsh hauliers also threatened to blockade ports and refineries if the government doesn't help, stirring memories of refinery blockades in 2000 that caused shortages in some areas.

-- The drivers said fuel bills had risen by almost a half in a year and demanded a rebate. Britain has the highest fuel duty in the European Union.

* BULGARIA:

-- More than 100 truck drivers converged into a convoy on a ring road of the capital Sofia on Friday in a fresh protest to renew demands for excise duty rebates and government help over high fuel prices.

* FRANCE:

-- On Friday truckers organized two "operation snail" protests - driving their trucks at low speed blocking roads. The first held up traffic on a motorway between Paris and Charles de Gaulle airport. The second was in the central Haute Vienne area.

* Fishermen from several Normandy ports converged on Le Havre port on Friday morning to blockade it completely.

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

-- On Thursday, French riot police scuffled with fishermen striking against the surging cost of oil, who were joined by hundreds of farmers using tractors to block fuel depots.

-- Diesel has gone up by 30 percent in 2008 and fishermen have said they want it discounted at half the market price.

* ITALY: