PROTESTING farmers encircled Paris with tractor barricades in a “siege” of the French capital today, using their vehicles to block highways leading to the city.

The targeting of Paris — host of the Summer Olympics in six months’ time — and elsewhere in France comes amid similar action across Europe as farmers demand fairer European Union regulations for their work.

French farmers said they aim to stop food deliveries to supermarkets, saying they feel ignored by government ministers they accuse of rarely venturing to farms for fear of getting their shoes dirty.

The French government on Friday dropped plans to slowly reduce state subsidies on agricultural diesel and promised an easing of environmental regulations, but farmers say it is not enough and pledged to step up pressure.

FNSEA agricultural union president Arnaud Rousseau said: “What we have understood is that as long as the protest is far from Paris, the message is not getting through.

 “Our goal isn’t to bother or to ruin French people’s lives. Our goal is to put pressure on the government to rapidly find solutions out of the crisis.”

South of the capital, protesters used forklifts to deposit hay bales to block the A6 highway, broadcaster BFM-TV's images showed.

At Jossigny, protesters blocked all six lanes of the A4 highway, parking their tractors so they formed the shape of an ear of wheat when seen from the air.

Some vehicles carried placards reading: “No food without farmers” and “The end of us would mean famine for you.”

Taxi drivers also joined the action today over the fees they face from the health service for transporting patients for non-urgent treatment from their homes to hospitals.

The government wants to save money by getting taxi services to pick up several patients rather than just one per car.