ANGRY truckers brought peak-time traffic to a standstill on the AiM in North-East yesterday in protest at the soaring cost of fuel.

In a direct challenge to the Government, lorry drivers from the North-East and North Yorkshire followed the example of colleagues in France by blockading the A1 Western Bypass at Gateshead for three hours.

They were joined by car drivers angry at the prospect of petrol prices rising to £5-a-gallon by the end of the year.

And they threatened further action next week by cutting off fuel depots on Teesside, Wearside and Tyneside in a repeat of the recent stand-off at Shell's Stanlow oil refinery in Cheshire.

Vehicles were caught in a seven-mile tailback by the protest, which hit traffic between 4pm and 7pm.

The convoy of 100 lorries, cars, vans and tractors, which stretched almost a mile, drove slowly north towards Swalwell before turning around and heading south towards Birtley.

But plans to stop on the inside lane of the A1 for 61 minutes were scrapped after police warned that drivers would be arrested for blocking the highway.

The extra minute's protest was to have been in respect of hauliers and farmers who committed suicide, suffered family break-ups and lost their businesses through the pressures of high fuel prices.

Craig Eley, 29, led the protestors, some travelling from as far as Kent, after his Gateshead firm, Eley Brothers, was forced to sack three drivers.

He said: "Fuel prices have gone up 25 per cent in the last 12 months, and the cost is crippling us.

"People are being put under tremendous stress, because if they are not making money, the banks call in their debts and they lose their homes.

"Many people have actually committed suicide because their lives have been left in ruins by a Labour Government they voted in.

"People are fed up, and maybe now Tony Blair will take notice when a major road comes to a standstill in the middle of a busy Friday."

Mr Eley added: "We have had an excellent response from the public, and one bus full of holidaymakers was cheering us and wishing us good luck."

Farmer Andrew Spence, 33, of Leadgate, near Consett, County Durham, helped organise the protest.

He said: "I can't remember a time when things were so difficult. Some of my neighbours have gone bankrupt."