1.   The administration would hate this, largely because the petrol tax is so unpopular in the open spaces of the West.

2.   The bluntest way to encourage this would be to increase petrol tax.

3.   The Minister dismissed the notion that he had cut petrol tax because of the forthcoming by-election.

4.   There was increasing pressure on the Chancellor to cut petrol tax.

5.   The government is also reported to be planning an increase in petrol tax later this year.

6.   The Bush administration is now considering national petrol tax to encourage public transport where it exists.

7.   The additional petrol tax would not be, as the government is trying to argue, a burden on the economy.