“If they chose to reject the industry forum and chose instead to disrupt the lives of millions of ordinary people who are paying their taxes, then I don’t think they will get a resonance out there with the public.”The FTA attacked the offer of a forum, accusing ministers of trying to placate hauliers rather than dealing with their concerns. At least three firms representing 2 per cent of the industry are planning to register their fleets abroad unless the Government backs down.But Mr Reid, speaking on GMTV’s Sunday programme dismissed any possibility of “rewriting” or “unpicking” the Budget, adding: “We want to build a bridge to the future so that we can see that the haulage industry continues to thrive.”He warned hauliers not to take part in the demonstration. He meets the heads of the Freight Transport Association (FTA) and the Road Haulage Association (RHA) tomorrow.Hauliers say the Budget will add millions of pounds to their running costs and force them to cut jobs. Hundreds of lorry drivers say they will bring traffic in the capital to a halt by driving slowly through the streets in protest at Budget increases in diesel duty and road tax.
John Reid, the Transport minister, said he would set up a special forum of Transport and Treasury ministers and hauliers’ leaders. THE GOVERNMENT yesterday offered to set up a high-level forum with lorry drivers in a last-minute bid to head off a demonstration that threatens to bring chaos to London today. With Russia emotionally and diplomatically protective of Serbia, it would be exceptionally difficult for Mr Clinton to order bombing during the Russian premier’s visit.Thousands flee, page 11. The US wishes to build its relations with Mr Primakov to encourage Russian ratification of a pending arms control agreement, and to formulate terms for Moscow’s involvement in Nato’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

Not only is there opposition in Congress to US embroilment in the Balkans, but Yevgeni Primakov, the Russian Prime Minister, is due to visit Washington tomorrow and Wednesday.Although billed as a routine meeting, it is considerably more important. And he added: “He can move to the path of peace or he can take this punishment.”Like other US officials he declined to discuss a timetable for bombing, arguing that that would not be “appropriate” but there do appear to be reasons for the White House to hold back. THE PRESIDENT is off the hook – for now. Most were poor civilians who had been queuing for cheap vegetables.

The Interior Minister, Sergei Stepashin, said he believed only religious fanatics could have carried out such a cruel attack.Whatever the truth, peace has never been more fragile in the Caucasus, where those linking their future to Russia, albeit loosely, face Islamic fundamentalists wanting the region for Allah, and where the old trad- ition of blood revenge lives on.. In the Second World War, Stalin deported the Ingush and transferred a piece of their territory to North Ossetia, a decision that still rankles.Yesterday was declared a day of mourning across Russia for more than 60 people who died in the market blast. Another possibility is that the bomb was planted to provoke ethnic tension between the Orthodox Christian Ossetians and the Muslim Ingush, relatives of the Chechens. Only with difficulty is Moscow restraining itself from launching a war over the latest kidnapping this month; masked men drove on to Grozny airport and took General Gennady Shpigun off a plane for Moscow.The Russians are now also wondering whether militant Chechens might be behind the market bombing in the North Ossetian capital of Vladikavkaz. The Russians are furious because Chechen warlords, beyond President Maskhadov’s control, are holding hostage an interior ministry general.Islamic radicals have abducted dozens of Russian civilians and several foreigners, and beheaded four telephone engineers from Britain and New Zealand.

The Chechen leader, frustrated by Moscow’s unwillingness to grant his region independence, has said he lacks confidence in Yevgeny Primakov, the Prime Minister, and asked to see President Boris Yeltsin.Relations between Moscow and the breakaway Muslim region are more tense now than at any time since the 1994-96 war. Caucasians routinely blame the successors to the KGB for trying to destabilise their region.However, an official spokesman, Movlem Salamov, said “bandits” were trying to prevent a search for peace between President Maskhadov and Russian politicians. Shooting broke out after the blast, which blasted a 9-foot by 16-foot crater in the road and blew out windows in surrounding buildings.As usual, some presidential aides saw the “hand of the Russian special services” in the attack. The assassination attempt, the fourth he has survived, added to tension across the entire Caucasus after Friday’s carnage at a bombed market in neighbouring North Ossetia.
The Itar-Tass news agency said four of the President’s bodyguards were injured by yesterday’s bomb, planted in a sewer and timed to go off when the Chechen leader passed on his way to his residence in Grozny.

He said appointments and promotionsshould be based on merit rather than nationality.. CHECHNYA’S moderate President, Aslan Maskhadov, narrowly escaped with his life yesterday when a roadside bomb exploded within seconds of his motorcade speeding by. Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, called for a permanent president to be appointed immediatelyAs the whistleblower Paul Van Buitenen warned of a torrent of fresh corruption evidence, Mr Cook put forwardproposals for ending France’s administrative stranglehold on the Commission. Itscandidate for the presidency of the European Central Bank lost out to the Dutchman Wim Duisenberg last year.One scenario is that Paris would agree to Mr Kok’s appointment as Commission chief if Mr Duisenberg relinquished his post within two years.EU foreign ministers were meeting in Brussels last night to try to narrow divisions over whether an interim caretaker successor to the disgraced Commission president, Jacques Santer, should be found. Although he has said he is unavailable, Wim Kok, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, is also viewed as a serious challenger as the horse trading heats up before heads of government meet for the Berlin summit on Wednesday.
Abel Matutes, the Foreign Minister of Spain, said in Brussels: “Prodi has demonstrated that he is competent and qualified to do the job.”Spain’s backing for Mr Prodi confirms speculation that Jose Maria Aznar, the centre-right Spanish Prime Minister, would withhold his support from his compatriot Javier Solana, the Nato secretary-general, whowas considered a frontrunner.France is hostile to the idea of appointing another Dutchman to a key EU position. “If there was a speaker, people would devolve responsibility for things they have to do themselves at the moment.”.