After four days of blockages on Belgium's roads, during which 80 per cent of petrol deliveries were prevented, leaders of the three hauliers' unions last night called for a return to work. Within minutes there were reports of roads being cleared.
"It is the end of the crisis," RTL/TV1 announced.
Earlier, the Liberal Prime Minister, Mr Guy Verhofstadt, made an appeal to hauliers to accept the government's latest offer. He said he would not tolerate a minority of hauliers effectively holding the nation to ransom.
While it appeared that all but the most militant of the haulage unions, the UPTR, were willing to accept the deal, the militants finally succumbed with much recrimination against the moderates who had accepted. They warned they would continue to campaign in other ways.
Mr Verhofstadt has been in a difficult position. Concessions to the truckers on oil tax are strongly opposed by the government's Green partners so it is offering instead a package of social and fiscal measures.
There had been an eerie bank holiday silence about the Schuman Roundabout at the heart of the European quarter. Huge juggernauts blocked each of the entry points and have done so for days. However, pedestrian traffic was as busy as ever thanks to an efficient underground service.
Throughout the country, major roads and access to refineries were blocked with no attempt by the police to force their way through. Yesterday businesses sought injunctions to try and force the authorities to act.
Belgium's main employers' federation claims the protests have cost the economy 10 billion Belgian francs (£200 million) a day. The union representing truckers, the European Transport Workers' Federation, has condemned the action. It complained that what had hit its members' salaries was the cut-throat competition in haulage.
"Diesel prices are only one element in an industry that refuses its real costs, subjecting those who work in it to unacceptable pressures," a statement said.
A teachers' union protested at the leniency with which the authorities had treated protesters.
On Wednesday, the truckers were joined by hundreds of taxi drivers who blocked traffic to Belgium's main airport. An airport spokesman told RTBF radio that a NATO-owned pipeline supplied the airport's aircraft direct from refineries. However, if protests continued for two more days disruption was likely as vehicles servicing the aircraft would run dry.
