Fuel prices halt 3 French naval missions

PARIS — The French navy canceled three summer missions Monday because of soaring fuel prices — including a counternarcotics exercise off the United States.

The ripple effects of spiraling fuel prices also are being felt in Spain, where truckers and fishermen are striking in protest.

The French ship De Grasse was to sail alongside U.S. vessels off the East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico to train for preventing drug trafficking. Naval officials said to their best knowledge, this was the first time French navy missions had been called off because of the price of fuel. French Rafale fighter planes, however, are still set to take part.

The decision came as protests of rising fuel prices have broken out across Europe. For weeks, fishermen and truck drivers have rallied to press for government aid, saying the high prices threaten their livelihoods.

Fuel prices have been far higher in Europe than in the United States for many years, largely because of fuel taxes, which account for at least half the price motorists pay and sometimes more than 70 percent.

But the sustained surge in oil prices has left many Europeans bewildered. Depending on where and how it is bought, the price of widely used diesel can reach almost $9 per gallon.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said European leaders should agree at a June 18-19 summit on a way to cushion the shock.

Last month, Sarkozy urged the 27-nation European Union to suspend part of the value-added tax to counter prices. The proposal has won little support.

At a meeting Monday with Sarkozy in the German town of Straubing, Merkel said energy prices would be a regular feature at upcoming meetings.

Tens of thousands of Spanish truckers began an indefinite strike Monday over fuel costs that risks bringing the country to a standstill. A strike by fishermen entered its second week.

"We are the ones who move the goods that this country needs to keep working. If we stop because we haven't got the money to buy fuel, then the country will stop," Julio Villascusa, president of the transport association federation Fenadismer, told Cadena SER radio.

On Monday, drivers lined up their rigs and slowed to a crawl on their country's border with France.

French drivers also slowed traffic near Bordeaux, offering a foretaste of a national strike planned by French truckers Monday. Portuguese drivers blocked roads, and in Liege, Belgium, thousands of union members protested the rising cost of living as a result of higher fuel costs.

Spain's Development Minister transport chief Juan Miguel Sanchez said the government will guarantee market supplies, but gas stations in Madrid and the northeastern Catalonia region began running out of fuel, leading to long lines. The strike was not expected to have a major effect on city food markets until later in the week.

Information from The New York Times is included in this report.

Saudis to call for oil summit

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia will call for a summit between oil-producing countries and consumer states to discuss soaring energy prices, Information and Culture Minister Iyad Madani said Monday.

The kingdom also will also work with OPEC to "guarantee the availability of oil supplies now and in the future," he said after the weekly Cabinet meeting.

On Monday, U.S. retail gas prices rose above $4 a gallon.

The Associated Press