BC FRANCE STRIKES (PICTURE)/French fishermen attack foreign cargoes

By Olivier Hamoir

LILLE, France, April 11 (Reuter) Striking French fishermen have attacked Norwegian and Spanish trucks and dumped their food cargoes in the street in the Channel port of Boulogne sur Mer, officials said on Tuesday.

The fishermen's protest was the most violent in a series of stoppages in both public and private sectors that are dogging the campaign for the April 23 May 7 presidential election.

The strikers, who want a ban on fish imports from countries outside the European Union and a pay rise, lit small fires outside the port authorities' office in Boulogne harbour late on Monday before hunting down foreign trucks.

Six lorries were partially emptied of their contents salmon, coalfish, frozen kidneys and entrecote steaks. Police did not intervene.

Witnesses said some of the fishermen wielded iron bars. They dumped most of the cargoes in the street and doused one truck's loading interior with diesel.

They also sprayed slogans on one truck saying Norwegian salmon was not welcome in France.

Early on Tuesday, French police escorted a new convoy of lorries with Norwegian fish into Boulogne sur Mer and no new incidents were reported.

In Oslo, Foreign Ministry spokesman Kaare Eltervaag said Norway had asked French fisheries officials and police "to do everything in their power to avoid a repetition".

Jean Pierre Noel of the pro Socialist CFDT union had warned after a general assembly of strikers earlier on Monday: "If the fishermen have to bash up lorries once more, they won't hesitate."

A separate strike at Paris's main airports delayed many domestic and international flights on Tuesday.

Officials said eight flights were diverted from Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, where only one runway was open because of a shortage of firemen, to Orly West early on Tuesday. The second Roissy runway was later reopened.

At Orly, where only one runway was open, flights were delayed by up to 30 minutes.

Airport staff are demanding more pay and that temporary

staff be given more secure work contracts.

Unions at the giant tyremaker Michelin, which employs 28,000 people, called for stoppages at factories across the country on Wednesday to demand more pay and shorter working hours.

Unions at state telecommunications company France Telecom also called a stoppage for Thursday in protest at job cuts.

The Paris public transport system will be disrupted for the second time on Thursday over a pay claim and one day strikes have also been called in postal services, banks, social security offices, gas and electricity services this week.