Cairo  - Trailer drivers in Egypt struck for a fourth straight day on Monday to protest a draft law that would ban the use of large trailers for safety reasons.

Violence escalated in al-Gharbiya governorate as the strike continued. Angry drivers threw heavy rocks at trailer drivers who refused to strike. At the same time, police detained 11 drivers for investigation.

On Sunday, 18 people were injured, including three policemen.

The strike has driven up the price of cement and other building materials in Egypt. Cement prices have risen to 900 Egyptian pounds (161.7 US dollars) per ton in some areas.

The head of the parliament's transportation department, Hamdi al- Tahan, said that on Tuesday a meeting would be held in parliament between trailer owners and representatives from the ministry of transportation and the ministry of interior.

The government says the law was prompted to combat an increase in road accidents. According to the ministry of transport, out of the 1,421 road accident in 2007, some
1,634 were caused by heavy transportation, including trailers, on highways.

The measure is set to go into effect in March.

Egyptian Minister of Transportation Mohamed Lotfi Mansour said that there are 40,000 trailers in Egypt and 60 per cent of those are over 15 year sold. The total volume of goods transported in Egypt has reached 540 million tons, of which 150 million tons are transported by trailers.

"The high rate of road accidents is caused by several factors. Poor condition of roads, unqualified drivers, who do not follow traffic rules are some. But to consider trailers solely responsible for accidents is not fair," Helmi Samuel, a senior truck owners in Sohag governorate told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa. (dpa)