FUEL prices across the region have rocketed after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in America.

At some filling stations, it is costing more than £1-a-litre as concerns grow in the wake of damage to US suppliers.

A sample survey of filling stations around the region, carried out by The Northern Echo, found the average price for unleaded petrol was 96.3 pence per litre and diesel was 97.8 pence per litre.

The most expensive was Dale Head Garage at Town Head, Hawes, in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, where the price for unleaded had risen by ten pence in a week to £1.05p pence per litre and 101.9p for diesel.

The increases seem to affect rural filling stations the most and others were hovering at just below the £1 mark.

Diesel and unleaded petrol at the Texaco Star filling station at Rainton, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, cost 99.9p, and at the BP Barton Park service station near Richmond, North Yorkshire, unleaded was 97.9p and diesel cost 99.9p.

Officially, fuel prices have risen by more than 12 per cent since January and the AA has said this means drivers nationally are spending an extra £7.5m a day on fuel.

Geoff Dunning, the regional director of the Road Haulage Association, said it was lobbying the Government for tax rebates for the haulage industry.

He said: "The average profit margin for a haulage company is about five per cent so, clearly, the scale of this increase is going to have a big impact on some companies."

John Toulson, who operates his haulage firm from the village of Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham, said: "Our fuel bill is about £80,000 a month so you can see how an extra 15 per cent or so makes a big difference."