Hauliers are meeting this week to discuss possible action against escalating fuel prices.

Bernard Howard, a pig farmer from Peterborough who also runs a small haulage firm, warned prime minister Gordon Brown yesterday that public protests over rising petrol prices could happen within a matter of days.

"Are you aware, prime minister, that the road hauliers are gathered together to go out in the country and show their muscle?” he told Brown at a CBI conference yesterday. "The meetings are taking place all this week. The strength of the road hauliers is on the march."