French taxi drivers protest with go-slow

Thousands of striking taxi drivers drove at a snail's pace around France today as part of a protest against government plans to open up their business to greater competition.

Several thousand drivers parked their cabs in the large Place de la Republique in Paris.

Some of whose vehicles bore banners reading "Angry Taxi" or "Don't touch my taxi" on their windscreens.

Elsewhere, taxi drivers intentionally drove extremely slowly on roads in the Paris region and the southern city of Toulouse, as a form of protest.

A panel commissioned by President Nicolas Sarkozy to find ways to boost France's moribund economy issued a report last week with hundreds of proposals, one of which urged deregulating the taxi sector.

Mr Sarkozy has said he supports the idea, arguing that it is often difficult to find taxis in Paris and other cities, and that such a move could create thousands of new jobs.

A national federation of taxi drivers fears the government would scrap quotas on the number of taxi drivers, which would add as many as 60,000 more onto French streets and dilute earning power in the sector.