As the country plunged further into crisis, President Nicolas Sarkozy is due to hold a crisis meeting to deal solely with dwindling fuel supplies.
A spokesman for the Seine-Maritime department prefecture in Normandy said: ‘Rationing is imperative while we deal with this crisis. Otherwise there would not be enough fuel to go round.’
Overnight a squad of CRS riot police was used to disperse a crowd of some 200 trade unionists blocking the Total deport in Lespinasses, a suburb of Toulouse