Striking fishermen Wednesday lifted a week-long blockade of France's largest oil refinery, but truck drivers and farmers stepped up their protests over soaring fuel prices.
Fishermen from across the Normandy region had blockaded the Total refinery in Gonfreville l'Orcher near the Channel coast since last Thursday. A court in Le Havre issued a fast-track ruling Tuesday ordering them to clear the site.
Fuel deliveries by truck resumed at around 6 am (0400 GMT) Wednesday, the site's management said. Pipeline deliveries - which account for 80% of the refinery's output - had not been affected by the protest.
Fishermen and truck drivers are in the vanguard of a wave of protests across western Europe over rising fuel costs, as oil prices hit a global record of over $130 a barrel.
The French government has boosted a package of aid for the fishing industry, while President Nicolas Sarkozy called Tuesday for a Europe-wide cut in oil taxes to help those hardest hit by the fuel price hike.
In La Rochelle on the Atlantic - where the three-week strike began - fishermen lifted a blockade of three oil depots and a third of fleets returned to sea, in a sign the movement strike could be winding down.
But further south near Toulouse, a group of 300 farmers used their cars to block the entry to a Total (TOT) fuel depot, demanding emergency measures to help the agriculture sector cope too.
The depot supplies service stations within a 200-kilometer radius of the city. Farmers' leaders said they would stay put until Thursday night.
And in southwestern Bordeaux around 40 protesting truck drivers slowed traffic to a near-halt on the city's ring road to demand compensation, traffic officials said.