LJUBLJANA, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The Slovenian government on Thursday reduced diesel taxes on highways to cut record high fuel prices.

Although the government did not actually cap the price of fuels at these locations, it expects the move will align prices along the highways with diesel prices charged elsewhere in the country.

Since Tuesday, the government has capped diesel prices at off-highway locations at 1.848 euros per liter while prices along the highways followed market prices and were around 11 percent higher. This has angered truck drivers who said they were forced to make a detour to nearby cities to fill their tanks at lower prices, which could create traffic jams.

Before Thursday's tax reduction, the price of a liter of diesel on highways reached about 2.05 euros (2.15 U.S. dollars) per liter, up from the previous record of about 1.9 euros reported on May 10, before the previous government had frozen gasoline prices for several weeks.

However, prices for 95-octane petrol on highways are still set freely and are about 11 percent higher than at off-highway locations where the price has been fixed by the government at 1.755 euros per liter since Tuesday.

Rising fuel prices pushed Slovenia's year-on-year inflation to 8.7 percent in May, the highest in over 20 years. (1 euro=1.05 U.S. dollars) Enditem

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