By David Evans
PARIS, Nov 24 (Reuters) - French truckers' unions threatened nationwide road blockades and transport misery reminiscent of the 1990s as talks with employers to resolve a pay dispute looked set to go to the wire on Sunday.
Negotiations were adjourned after more than seven hours on Saturday, with both sides still far from an accord. They are due to resume at 3 p.m. (1400 GMT). If there is no deal by 2100 GMT, unions have vowed to mobilise their members from Sunday evening.
On Sunday, the interior ministry confirmed it had met union leaders to say widespread road blockades were unacceptable.
"It's normal that protests cause bother, but they cannot be held in a way that paralyses the country," Le Journal du Dimanche quoted Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy as saying.
A series of blockades in the 1990s brought much of the country to a standstill and had repercussions beyond France's borders. France has six direct neighbours as well as ferry and tunnel links with Britain.
After a dispute in 1997, London demanded compensation for its hauliers stranded in traffic jams that built up on both sides of the Channel.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has said he would not allow labour conflicts to harm France's fragile economy.
UNIONS PESSIMISTIC
But union leaders are not holding out much hope of a last-ditch deal in the fifth round of talks between unions and bosses groups in the past two weeks.
Unostra, which represents some 3,000 small companies, has already quit the negotiating table, saying it could not meet union demands for financial commitments beyond 2003.
But the unions appear to have public support. An opinion poll published on Sunday in Le Journal du Dimanche showed about 75 percent of those polled supported the truckers' right to take industrial action.
In an interview in Le Parisien newspaper on Sunday, the head of the CGT union Bernard Thibault said action was "inevitable".
The unions are demanding a 14 percent pay rise, an extra month's wages a year and shorter working hours.
Employers put more money on the table on Saturday, offering a phased-in 14 percent wage rise but the sticking point seemed to be introducing the 13th month of pay -- a perk enjoyed by many workers in continental Europe.
"There is no question of writing the 13th month into our collective working agreement," said Philippe Chouet of the FNTR employers' organisation.
Riot police have been deployed at the river port of Gennevilliers, north of Paris, a major supply point for fuel, pharmaceuticals and other goods to the capital.
They are also standing by at other sensitive locations across the country, such as main fuel distribution points.
Petrol stations have been jammed as motorists fear fuel shortages, though unions said they would not block oil refineries.
Raffarin's conservative government, which took power in June with law and order as its top priority, has vowed to ensure the free circulation of goods.
It is aware of brewing discontent among some sectors of the public service but is also anxious to avoid a repeat of the wave of social unrest that swept France in late 1995 and ultimately led to the fall of the conservative government two years later.