Appeals for calm on fuel panic

Long queues formed at forecourts around the UK

Queues at petrol stations are starting to ease after a day of panic buying, sparked by false rumours that fuel blockades were about to be reintroduced.

Huge queues formed at petrol stations as what police described as "urban hysteria" spread across the UK. The government, police, protester groups and oil firms appealed for calm.

Meanwhile the Tories kept up the pressure on ministers by signalling a proposal to cut fuel duty, which Chancellor Gordon Brown has so far rejected.

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He has also rejected demands for action within 60 days, as laid down by the fuel demonstrators when they abandoned protests last week, which prompted one activist to accuse him of "trying to provoke a confrontation".

The rumours of fresh blockades started in South Wales and rapidly spread to other parts of the country.

The Petrol Retailers Association warned the situation could become "extremely serious".

Police say there are no protests taking place and the oil companies and the Transport and General Workers Union confirm that no blockades have been reimposed.

Inaccurate report

Members of a new lobby group representing last week's protesters, the People's Fuel Lobby, said they were sticking to their pledge to take no further action until the deadline was up.

The panic buying began when an inaccurate report on a local radio station in South Wales, Red Dragon FM, on Monday, said fuel protesters might be about to restart their action.

BP warned that if the panic buying continued, the 46 sites previously designated for emergency only might once again have to be closed to the public.

Police were forced to close some petrol stations in Cardiff after long queues began affecting city-centre traffic and the problem spread to Bristol.

Darren Baine, of Avon Police, told BBC News 24: "All we can keep saying to people is there is no reason to panic buy, use a bit of common sense and you will be able to get the fuel you need."

The West Midlands ambulance service was forced to reintroduce its emergency plan while petrol stations in parts of Essex, Scotland, Cheshire and the south west were also beseieged by motorists.

Brown stands firm

The renewed panic follows Gordon Brown insisting the government would not give in to the petrol protesters' 60-day demand.

"We are not going to make decisions on the basis of deadlines such as this," he said in an interview in The Times newspaper.

"We have a process that works - the pre-Budget report and then the Budget."

But Brynle Williams, the farmer who spearheaded the first fuel tax protest, said: "Gordon Brown is a very, very silly man for making such an antagonistic public statement."

"The chancellor is trying to provoke a confrontation."

Tory leader William Hague accused the government of ignoring public opinion on fuel prices, and said his party was ready to respond to demands for a cut in duty.

Speaking after a shadow cabinet meeting in Buckinghamshire, Mr Hague said: "They have not listened to the protesters and not listened to millions of people who resent the ever-increasing taxes that they have to pay."

Brown: "We are listening to farmers and hauliers"

"The government are not responding, we will."

Shadow chancellor Michael Portillo later confirmed that he was planning to unveil on Wednesday details of how he would bring down the price of petrol and diesel.

He told Channel 4 News: "When we left office petrol was 59p a litre, today it is 85p a litre, it has gone up 26p under Labour, and of those 26p, 16p of that rise is due to the tax changes that Gordon Brown made."

Tory sources said the party would be proposing a "significant" across-the-board cut in duties.