New Delhi - More than 70 per cent of India's petrol stations ran out of fuel and airline flights were delayed as a strike by over 50,000 state oil officials demanding higher pay entered its third day Friday, officials and news reports said.

Long queues stretched outside petrol pumps in the national capital New Delhi and metropolitan cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai that were rationing fuel. Few taxi services operated.

Late night talks Thursday between the government and officials from the state-run companies who control India's supply of transport fuel, natural gas and domestic crude failed to break the imbroglio.

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, concerned over serious fuel shortages, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at noon Friday to appraise him of the situation.

Officials at the Indian Oil Corporation which operates almost half of the 36,000 petrol pumps in the country and other state-run firms such as the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation began the strike on Wednesday.

The strike affected oil and gas production with crude oil production at the Mumbai offshore fields reduced by almost half at 170,000 barrels and four key IOC refineries operating at 25 to 30 per cent of capacity.

Tens of thousands of truck drivers were also on strike, pushing up prices of food and commodities across the country.

Later on Friday, tough talking by the Indian government had some effect as some oil officers and workers organizations called off their strike.

Officers from the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Oil India Limited said that they were withdrawing their strike.

Indian government had warned the striking employees to immediately rejoin work or face dismissal from work or even arrest.

But there was no marked improvement at the petrol stations, and shortages persisted late Friday evening.

Industry officials told NDTV that up to 85 per cent of petrol stations in Mumbai, 70 per cent in Chennai, 60 per cent in Delhi and 30 per cent in Kolkata had run out of stocks.

Supplies of aviation fuel were also affected, delaying up to 25 flights from Mumbai on Friday.

Motorists queued up near petrol stations and waited hours to tank up. "I came early in the morning and got petrol after a two-hour wait in the queue," New Delhi office worker Sudesh Jaiswal said.

Pump owners said it would take at least a week for supplies to return to normal even if the strike ended soon.

Meanwhile, prices of fruit and vegetables have almost doubled due to the indefinite truck drivers' strike that began January 5, the NDTV reported. The drivers are demanding a diesel price cut and the scrapping of a service tax.

Amid reports that some Indian states had announced they were banning strikes by public sector employees, Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey told the PTI news agency that the army had been called in to help transport oil.

He said the government had already deployed volunteer forces like the Territorial Army at refineries to ensure supply lines do not dry up due to the ongoing strike. (dpa)