PARIS: President Nicolas Sarkozy sent in police to clear access to barricaded fuel depots and restore supply as trade unions kept up their resistance to an unpopular pension reform due for a final vote this week. Fuel imports hit a record high on Tuesday, the government said, as it sought to circumvent a 24-day blockade of France's largest oil port, near Marseille, where 51 oil tankers were idle in the Mediterranean, unable to dock. Nearly one in three of France's 12,500 petrol stations was dry or running short. Sarkozy said the government would not let the country be paralysed by protests against a pension reform that seeks to raise the minimum age of retirement to 62 from 60. “If this disorder is not ended quickly, the attempt to paralyse the country could have consequences for jobs by disrupting the normal functioning of the economy,” the president told a cabinet meeting in remarks released by his office. He vowed again to push through his pension reform. With a Senate vote expected by the end of the week, trade unions tried to tighten their grip on key sectors of the economy with a ninth day of refinery strikes, go-slows by truck drivers on main highways and work stoppages at regional airports.
