(Adds Sarkozy visit) By Pierre-Henri Allain BREST, France, Nov 5 (Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy will on Tuesday meet with striking fisherman who have blocked the entrances to three oil depots and a refinery in northwestern France to protest over rising fuel costs. Around 300 fishermen barred access to a depot in the Atlantic port of Brest on Monday shortly before dawn and other protesters sealed off depots serving the ports of Lorient and Douarnenez. Another group of fishermen set up a blockade at one of France's biggest refineries, at Donges, which is operated by oil giant Total<TOTF.PA>. The company said there was no immediate impact from the protest which is expected to continue until Wednesday. Angry fishermen in Brest set fire to boxes of Scandinavian fish, saying they could not compete with imported products because of the climbing fuel costs. "Our claims have not changed. We are asking for a system of compensation for the rise of diesel prices," said fisherman Stephane Postic on the fourth day of protests in the region. "At 52 (euro) cents a litre, many fishing businesses are not making money and there are boats losing money each time they go out," he added. Sarkozy will travel to Guilvinec in Finistere where the protests started, on a visit that is typical of his hands-on approach to office and which contrasts sharply with previous French presidents. At the weekend he flew to Chad to collect seven Europeans freed after a spell in jail on suspicion of involvement in an attempt to fly 103 African children to Europe. And after recent railway protests, he made an unscheduled trip to a depot of state train operator SNCF, coming face to face with workers angry at his planned reform of their pensions. Sarkozy, who will squeeze in his visit to the fisherman, before leaving for Washington to see U.S. President George W. Bush, will be accompanied by Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Michel Barnier. "The rise in the price of petrol products is causing a problem everywhere," Barnier told Reuters during a visit to a wine-making town near Budapest, Hungary. "We have been working for several days and also all day yesterday to find durable solutions for this question." Barnier is also due to meet the fishermen on Wednesday. But they said the agenda for the meeting did not live up to their expectations. "The minister is proposing a reorganisation of the fishing industry but there is nothing very precise and it's still insufficient," said Michel Rouanes, a spokesman for the fisherman. Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said on Monday she would meet oil companies. "It is a commodity that will become increasingly rare," she told Europe 1 radio. Fishing firms say they had budgeted for diesel to cost some 30 euro cents a litre this year and have dismissed a 25.5 million euro ($37 million) aid package announced by the government last week as insufficient. (Reporting by Crispian Balmer, additional reporting by Andras Gergely in Budapest, editing by Anna Willard and Sami Aboudi)
