By Ben Harding
MADRID (Reuters) - Protesters marched in India, Hong Kongand Nepal over soaring oil prices on Tuesday and Spaniardsstockpiled fuel and food, fearing shortages because of a truckdrivers' strike that has halted deliveries.
South Korean truck drivers also threatened to strike,increasing pressure on Asian governments struggling to preventrising prices from breaking their budgets and avoid making theburden on the public so heavy it threatens political stability.
The strike by Spanish truck drivers, which Portuguesedrivers have also joined, was backed by protests across theborder in France over the impact of high oil prices, now atrecord highs of over $139 per barrel.
Diesel has risen to 1.30 euros/litre from 0.95 euros a yearago, putting pressure on European Union governments to helpheavy fuel users such as truck and taxi drivers, fishermen andfarmers.
In Spain, cars queued at petrol stations -- 40 percent ofwhich had run out of fuel in the worst affected area ofCatalonia -- and supplies of fresh food began to run low insome markets, Spanish media reported.
"I heard all the petrol stations were running out of fuelso I came to fill up, otherwise I worried I won't be able toget to work tomorrow," said a Madrid driver who gave his nameas Raul.
Police motorbike riders escorted fuel tankers to somepetrol stations to break picket lines and prevent attacks,after some strikers slashed lorry tyres on Monday.
ONE MILLION PROTESTORS
Oil company Cepsa said 45 percent of its deliveries hadfailed to get through to stations due to strikers blockingtheir path at fuel deposits, although Spain's biggest oil firmRepsol said deliveries were getting through with "relativenormality."
Half the normal number of tankers picked up fuel atdeposits on Monday, distribution firm CLH said, though thespokesman added that many oil companies had taken on extrasupplies in previous days in anticipation of the strike.
In Catalonia, the worst affected region, car producer Seatsaid it stopped production on Monday night and a further twoshifts on Tuesday -- cutting production by 700 cars a shift --because supplies could not get through.
Meanwhile a strike by Spanish fishermen, now in its 12thday, showed no sign of breaking. Only a trickle of fish passedthrough Vigo -- Europe's biggest fishing port -- compared tothe 200 tonnes that is normally traded there every day.
Traders at Madrid's main food wholesale market, speaking onstate television, said that supplies of fresh food would startto run out in the coming days.
In South Korea, up to 1 million people were expected torally on Tuesday after a row over beef imports from the UnitedStates acted as a lightning rod for a broad range of grievancesagainst President Lee Myung-bak's three-month-old government,including high fuel prices.
INDIA PROTESTS WANE
South Korean truck drivers voted on Monday to strike overrising fuel prices, ignoring a $10.2 billion (5.2 billionpounds)government aid package designed to cushion the impact ofthe fuel cost surge.
"We are faced with a 'resources crisis' coming next only tothe oil crisis in the 1970s and the financial crisis in the1990s," President Lee Myung-bak said in a speech, as the primeminister of Lee's three-month-old government offered thecabinet's resignation over the various mounting protests.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi meanwhilepledged 1 billion ringgit (157 million pounds) in extraspending for the politically key state of Sarawak, to shore upsupport there among lawmakers unhappy over a sharp jump in fuelcosts.
A decision last week to raise petrol prices by 41 percentand diesel by 63 further soured the mood in the country, andthe opposition is calling for protests later this week.
In Hong Kong about 500 minibuses, lorries, garbage trucksand coaches staged a go-slow protest, crippling traffic in ademonstration calling for fuel taxes to be scrapped.
Communists burned tyres and blocked roads in parts ofeastern India in protests at fuel price rises but elsewhere inthe country calls for strikes were largely ignored.
India increased petrol and diesel prices last week byaround 10 percent after the cost of fuel subsidies broughtstate oil companies close to bankruptcy.
(Additional reporting by Robert Hetz and Anna Valderrama inSpain; Sanjeev Miglani in Kuala Lumpur and bureaux in SouthKorea, India, Nepal and Hong Kong; Editing by Jon Boyle)
