No easy answer on oil - Brown

Gordon Brown called on nations to unite to stabilise the price of oil, which has increased from 10 US dollars a barrel a decade ago to 135 dollars.

Mr Brown's comments come after he 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.

Senior Cabinet colleagues insisted the Prime Minister is "listening" to anger over a planned increase in vehicle excise duty on higher-polluting vehicles expected to hit nearly 18 million people.

Mr Brown acknowledged the public's concern about the impact the rising oil price was having on transport and fuel bills.

He writes 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."

Mr Brown is due to meet energy chiefs in Scotland to discuss the high price of oil.