French workers are set to continue their protests against planned pension reforms as a rolling strike enters its seventh day.

法国工人计划继续反抗政府的养老金制度改革，他们举行的罢工已进入第七天。

Transport workers say they will continue their protest on Wednesday but more trains are forecast to run.

Student leaders have also called for more protests ahead of a senate vote on the retirement¹ age later this week.

The interior ministry² said 1.1m people took to France's streets on Tuesday; the CGT union put the number at 3.5m.

The street protests were comparable with the previous week's national day of action.

The day of action was seen as a last attempt to mobilise protesters before the Senate's final vote on the government's pension reforms later this week. The lower house, the National Assembly has already approved the package.

Strikes have hit transport and education, 4,000 petrol stations out of a total of 13,000 have run dry and police have clashed with protesters in several cities.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has insisted he will press ahead with（继续进行） plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 and the full state pension age from 65 to 67.

The BBC's Gavin Hewitt in Paris says that union leaders have to decide how to keep up pressure on the government.

The planned increases in the retirement age are widely unpopular in France.

But the unions are wary³（谨慎的，机警的） about public reaction to long queues at petrol stations, our correspondent says.

The scale of disruption has begun to affect large parts of society, with strikes at France's 12 oil refineries⁴ hitting fuel supplies hard.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon announced plans to end the shortages by asking oil companies to share their reserves to replenish⁵（补充） stocks at petrol stations.

Overnight, police lifted the blockade at three fuel depots⁷ in Le Mans, La Rochelle and Donges. However, AFP news agency later reported that strikers had again blocked the depot⁶ at Donges.