Italy began to return to normal on Thursday after a three-day truckers' strike that blocked motorways, left petrol stations dry and caused shortages of fresh fruit and vegetables.
Unions involved in the truckers' dispute called off the nationwide protest on Wednesday evening after talks with government officials yielded an offer of 30 million euros to help pay for motorway tolls.
Truck drivers, protesting over high fuel prices and working conditions, quickly ended their blockades of key motorway junctions and by midday on Thursday most traffic problems were over.
Meanwhile, petrol companies assured that all filling stations would be back to normal by Friday and the first trucks left wholesale markets in big cities carrying fruit and vegetables to supermarkets.
''The government must now respect every letter of the commitments made, otherwise we're ready to switch off our engines again,'' said Maurizio Longo, of the CNA Fita truckers' union.
As well as 30 million euros for motorway tolls, the accord struck on Wednesday evening involved minimum tariffs for haulage services and standard client contracts in order to protect smaller firms.
''We are satisfied because we have restored the country to normal without giving in to provocation. Dialogue won out,'' said Premier Romano Prodi.
Tensions ran high on Wednesday as drivers ignored a formal call from the government to return to work and disruption continued.
Rome prosecutors, who are probing 26 truck drivers for blocking public services, said police squads had been primed to move in at dawn on Wednesday to forcibly remove roadblocks if the talks with the government failed.
Consumers' association Codacons said the economic damage caused by the protest amounted to at least three billion euros a day.
Farmers' union CIA warned of the possibility that, in the wake of the food shortages, some unscrupulous retailers could inflate the prices of traditional Christmas fare.
