( AFP ) - Petrol stations throughout Italy were running dry Wednesday as a crippling truckers' strike was followed almost 100 percent with thousands of truckers blocking roads for the third day running, press reports and unions said.
"The strike is followed by nearly 100 percent of owners of the more than 100,000 haulage companies and their drivers," said Pasquale Russo, secretary general of the umbrella Conftrasporto which groups most of the seven truck drivers' unions which started the strike on Monday.
The more than 100,000 businesses are responsible for the delivery of 84 percent of transported goods in Italy.
Strikers on Tuesday defied an order by Transport Minister Alessandro Bianchi to end the planned five-day disruption by midnight to protect the delivery of essential supplies, after talks broke down between unions and government.
Bianchi said on state RAI television on Wednesday that new talks would be held "only if truckers end the roadblocks which are illegal".
But Russo insisted that "a new meeting must take place".
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi justified Bianchi's decree, saying on national television: "The blockages constitute an intolerable violation of the liberty of citizens."
Tensions mounted overnight at some roadblocks where foreign-registered trucks and truckers who did not join the protest sought to break through, Il Messaggero newspaper reported Wednesday.
Police arrested three truck drivers for putting up resistance in Naples and three others were detained in Sicily but the situation was calm in the rest of the country, the paper said on its Internet site.
Emergency services and private cars were allowed to pass one by one at roadblocks on national roads and motorways, notably at the Italian-French border crossing in the Riviera town of Ventimiglia.
Union leaders have said the strike will be continued until Friday leaving the government with the question of how to deal with its consequences for the supply of fresh produce and the economy in general.
The Italian authority for social conflict resolution has called on the transport ministry to requisition lorries and drivers, calling the current blockage illegal and complaining of the "disruption" in public services.
The Consumers' Association, Codacons, called for the police to intervene.
The Fiat motor firm said it had shut down its five Italian plants because the strike had affected deliveries of parts, a decision that affected 22,000 workers.
The unions are demanding greater financial help to compensate for the higher price of diesel.
"It is essential that we get back the increase in diesel oil prices," said the FAI union, one of seven that called the strike that began Monday.
On November 30, unions staged Italy's largest transport strike in 25 years, causing widespread chaos with hundreds of flights cancelled and trains, buses, ferries, emergency services and even hearses out of action.