(adds last blockade lifted paragraph seven, replaces union quote paragraphs 13-14)
By Paul Carrel
PARIS, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Truck drivers abandoned roadblocks mounted across France in a pay feud on Monday but strikes and protests planned by air traffic controllers and public sector workers threatened to wreak more havoc on Tuesday.
Faced with pressure from police or non-striking drivers, truckers freed up roads, easing fears of a repetition of three similar blockades in the 1990s, which dried up petrol stations and halted food supplies.
The blockades, which started on Sunday night, had petered out by late afternoon on Monday, although the CGT and CFDT unions, which represent a large majority of truck workers, vowed to continue their protest on Tuesday in another form.
The blockades and protests are the biggest grass-roots challenge yet faced by France's five-month-old conservative government, which has irked unions with plans to privatise state-run companies, reform the pension system and cut spending.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin repeated a warning that he would not stand by and allow the truckers' blockades to weaken France's already fragile economic growth.
"In our country we have the right to strike, the right to protest. These rights must be respected but we don't have the right to blockade," Raffarin said in Lille.
By 1745 GMT, the last of the blockades had been lifted, France's National Road Information Centre said in an update. The roadblocks earlier reached a peak of almost 40.
Raffarin now faces a 32-hour strike by air traffic controllers from Monday evening and a march in Paris on Tuesday by upwards of 50,000 rail workers and pensioners in protest over privatisations and fears for other French public services.
British Airways said it had cancelled 64 flights between London and France on Monday and Tuesday. Air France said it would cut a large number of domestic and European flights on Tuesday. Polish flights to France faced disruption too.
The blockades had a limited impact on business, although the threat remained that the truckers could take heart from Tuesday's protests and renew their efforts.
Many transport companies had told their drivers to take the day off on Monday in a bid to reduce the number of trucks on the road. The protest was also undermined by divisions in union ranks, local media said.
Officials from the CFDT and CGT unions denied the protest was a failure. Four smaller unions -- the FO, CFTC, CGC and FNCR -- broke ranks to agree to a pay deal with employers on Sunday.
Alain Renault, head of the transport arm of the CGT union, said the strikers would meet early on Tuesday to decide what to do next, but more blockades were on the cards.
"We are calling for action in ways which have yet to be determined, but indeed, there will certainly be more blockades tomorrow during the day," he told LCI television.
PRIVATE MOTORISTS LET THROUGH
French hauliers, who say profits have been hit by cut-throat competition and "social dumping" by foreign firms that hire cheaper labour in central Europe, refused worker demands to pay a 13th month salary, a common form of bonus in France.
At most blockades, truckers let private motorists pass but stopped trucks.
Truck drivers from Germany, France's biggest trading partner, and other countries with which French companies do business said the blockades had little impact on their hauliers, although they braced for possible delays.
"For now, we haven't really been affected by the strikes in France," said Adolf Zobel, deputy head of the German Truckers' Association.
Police were mobilised in Strasbourg in eastern France to ensure a trade route across the Rhine into Germany stayed open.
Europe's leading oil refiner TotalFinaElf said blockades at fuel depots had not affected deliveries to petrol stations despite rationing orders in various parts of the country.
French retailers reported the first signs of sporadic disruption, but analysts said it would be several days before blockades really hit the sector.
Strikes by rail workers on Tuesday threatened to disrupt national railway services and Paris metro underground trains.
The Paris public transport authority said metro trains would be disrupted, but that buses should run normally, except for those on the route of the Paris protests.
Train services between France and nearby countries such as Britain and Belgium should operate normally despite calls for work stoppages on Tuesday, state rail company SNCF said.
(Additional reporting by Brian Love)