Fuel price backdown in Bolivia

Bolivian President Evo Morales has cancelled a decree that sharply raised fuel prices, apparently reacting to widespread protests.

Morales acted yesterday after a week in which demonstrators filled the streets of Bolivia's capital and other cities to protest a decree last Sunday that suddenly raised petrol prices by 73 per cent.

Diesel prices jumped by 83 per cent. The cost of some other fuels nearly doubled.

Fuel prices had been frozen for six years and the Government said it could no longer afford to subsidise them, especially since much is smuggled across the border to neighbouring countries.