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French Navy Cancels 3 Exercises Over Fuel Prices

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The Associated Press

Published: June 10, 2008

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

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

The most significant of the canceled missions involves a training exercise off the East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.

The French ship De Grasse was slated to sail alongside U.S. vessels in an exercise to train for preventing drug trafficking.

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

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

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

Development Ministry 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.

As in France, some truck drivers have staged so-called "snail protests" that snarl traffic across large cities. On Monday, French and Spanish truckers blocked big rig trucks from crossing the border.

SAUDI ARABIA TO PRESS FOR 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 will also work with OPEC to "guarantee the availability of oil supplies now and in the future," the minister said after the weekly Cabinet meeting.

Madani said the kingdom has informed "all oil companies it deals with as well as countries that consume oil that the kingdom is ready to provide them with any additional oil they need."

The Saudi announcement comes just three days after the biggest single-day price leap ever, when oil surged more than $11 to surpass $139 a barrel.

The Associated Press

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