LONDON, Sept. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- European governments tried hard to form a united front as truck drivers and farmers in Britain and other European countries vowed to repeat the 2000 fuel protests, The Financial Times reported on Monday.

    Finance ministers from 12 eurozone countries drafted a statement of solidarity at the weekend, agreeing that they would stand together in facing down the protesters.

    The ministers said they will not bow to demands from truckers to cut fuel prices by reducing excise duty or value-added tax.

    British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown tried to cut the oil prices on oil industry rather than government, but British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell said Sunday that they were unlikely to cut gas prices in Britain, where taxation accounts for about 75 percent of the pump price.

    France, on the other hand, is reportedly to announce on Tuesday indirect measures to ease the burden of rising fuel prices on farmers, which may include tax breaks for undeveloped property.

    But attempts to form a united front failed as Poland said it would cut fuel taxes this week, a move that has irritated some fellow European Union countries.

    Truckers and farmers in Britain and elsewhere in Europe claim they are being driven out of business by rocketing oil prices which are nearing 70 US dollars a barrel. Therefore, they are determined to repeat the 2000 oil protest that brought many parts of Europe to a standstill.

    In late September 2000, professional road users in Britain, France, Germany and other parts of Europe launched large-scale protests against high oil prices.

    Britain was all but paralyzed as some 2,500 truckers and farmers protested at oil refineries and depots throughout the country, persuading tanker drivers to stop work.

    Similar protests were also staged by truckers in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Ireland and Germany. Enditem