GORDON Brown is meeting oil industry leaders today amid growing calls for Government action to curb soaring fuel prices.

Ahead of the talks the Prime Minister said there was "no easy answer" to the problem as the world faces its "third great oil shock".

He called on nations to unite to stabilise the price of the commodity, which has increased from 10 US dollars a barrel a decade ago to 135 dollars today.

Mr Brown will use today's meeting with energy chiefs in Scotland to attempt to secure a higher output from the UK's declining North Sea oil fields, the Guardian reported.

The talks come a day after the Prime Minister was besieged by hundreds of lorry drivers demanding he help save the haulage industry by reducing the duty on diesel.

The Government is also under mounting pressure to ditch controversial proposals to increase road tax on gas guzzling cars.

"Listening"

Senior Cabinet colleagues insisted yesterday Mr Brown was "listening" to anger over a planned increase in vehicle excise duty on higher-polluting vehicles expected to hit nearly 18 million people.

The Prime Minister today acknowledged the public's concern about the impact the rising oil price was having on transport and fuel bills.

He wrote in the Guardian: "I know that families up and down the country are feeling the impact in the cost of filling up at the petrol station and in the rise in gas and electricity bills.

"The cause of rising prices is clear: growing demand and too little supply to meet it both now and - perhaps of even greater significance - in the future.

"Our goal that Britain becomes a low-carbon economy is now an economic priority as well as an environmental imperative."

Global strategy

Mr Brown said the UK was arguing for a global strategy addressing the impact of higher oil prices to top the economic agenda at the forthcoming G8 summit in Japan.

He said more must be done to help the global oil market function efficiently, and called for "enhanced dialogue" between oil producers and consumers.

Mr Brown said the best long-term solution for consumers and the environment would be a radically different energy policy.

He wrote: "If we are to ensure a better deal for consumers, energy security and lower greenhouse gas emissions, Britain, Europe and the world will have to change how we use energy and the type of energy we use.

"We need to accelerate the development and deployment of alternative sources of energy, reducing global dependence on oil. Britain will increase its investment in renewables, including decentralised generation.

"We will build one of the world's first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage coal plants and we have committed to a nuclear building programme to ensure that the UK's emissions and dependence on fossil fuels do not rise as existing nuclear stations close."

Mr Brown said the winter fuel allowance, free insulation for over 75s and a £150 million programme to help the poor with fuel bills would help and said it was planned to insulate another five million homes and give three million more access to free or discounted energy-efficiency products.

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