Lorry drivers could bring London to a standstill today in what hauliers claim will be the biggest protest against fuel prices.

Up to 1,000 drivers from across the country are expected to descend on the capital in a last-ditch attempt to convey their desperation over rising petrol and diesel costs and fuel duty.

Backed for the first time by the Road Haulage Association (RHA), the lobby group TransAction 2007 and the Transport Association, the drivers plan to line their lorries along a closed-section of the A40 Westway.

Under police control, a series of convoys, each of 10 to 30 lorries will then move into central London while a delegation of hauliers marches to Parliament.

The lobby group are calling for a rebate of between 20 and 25p per litre on fuel duty to allow the British haulage industry to compete with companies in European countries where fuel is significantly cheaper.

Peter Carroll, spokesman for TransAction and a road haulier, said: “Our industry is being driven out of business. Continental hauliers are able to run in the UK using cheaper fuel from abroad. The Government needs to realise that the surge in oil prices has changed the world. It is madness to insist on charging the highest level of fuel duty in the EU on top of a world price that has rocketed. If nothing is done, thousands of UK hauliers will go bust.”

The “essential user rebate” system is already in use with buses and coaches, which claim a discount of 41p a litre, while lorries pay at full rates.

More than 640 MPs have received requests for a meeting from hauliers based in their constituencies and the protesters hope they will be able to express their concerns in person.

Andy Boyle, national chairman of the RHA, said: “I am absolutely delighted that so many sections of the UK transport industry have united in such a positive way. If ever there was positive proof that ours is an industry in crisis then this surely must be it.”

The RHA says that each extra penny on the price of a litre of fuel equates to a further £600 per year per vehicle.

The protest today will be the second in less than two months and has raised concerns of a repeat of the chaotic scenes from 2000, when lorry drivers and farmers blockaded fuel depots.

On May 27, hundreds of lorries caused chaos when drivers converged on London in protest against rising fuel costs.

The mass demonstration turned large swathes of the West End into a virtual car park as roads around the Paddington area were closed.

The London-bound A40 carriageway between White City and Edgware Road was closed from 10am to 3pm as nearly 300 lorry drivers parked their vehicles on the normally busy road.

While many also took part in a protest rally at Marble Arch organised by TransAction 2007, a six-member delegation of hauliers delivered a letter to 10 Downing Street asking Gordon Brown for an urgent meeting.

The protest was mirrored in Wales as a two-mile queue of lorries brought the M4 almost to a standstill.

Separately, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) has urged the Government to scrap diesel duty increases. The association says that the postponement of the 2p fuel duty increase to October is “not good enough”.

James Hookham, FTA director of policy, said: “We acknowledge that the Government cannot control the world price of oil. But it can re-think its policy on diesel duty. In the present cost environment, the Chancellor would be daft to impose the 2p duty increase, or the other increases planned for April 2009 and April 2010.

In Britain, duty on diesel is 50p per litre compared to the EU average of 25p per litre. Diesel prices in this country have risen by almost 50 per cent over the past year.