DRIVERS sick of rising petrol prices as they hit the £1 per litre mark are being urged to fight back with a boycott campaign.

An email circulating the country is calling for motorists to flex their consumer power and stop buying petrol from the two main retailers - Esso and BP.

The rallying cry in the email is: "We need to take aggressive action to teach them that buyers control the market place, not sellers.

"With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action."

The idea is drivers avoid these two main petrol brands for the rest of the year in the hope that they will be forced to lower their prices - and other companies will follow suit.

It follows similar campaigns when drivers have been asked not to buy fuel on certain days - but promises to "really work" by hitting the pockets of the oil companies rather than inconveniencing motorists.

Poole councillor Les Burden was among those who received the email.

He said: "If there was a big enough backing for it I'd support it. It's got to stop somewhere."

He added: "I would like to see more competition in the petrol industry. People have to use cars and really we're held to ransom."

But for some the campaign is attacking the wrong body.

Many lay the blame for high petrol prices at the foot of the government, which increased fuel duty by two pence per litre back in September, and will do the same next April, followed by another increase of 1.84p in 2009.

This, coupled with the soaring price of crude oil, has hit drivers hard.

Leader of Poole council Brian Leverett said: "One of the main reasons petrol prices are increasing is that the government keeps increasing the duty. It's increasing inflation and the costs of local authorities to deliver services."

Brian Verning, of Wareham truck driver training, said the high duties in this country were already forcing hauliers to "boycott" British service stations anyway. They were heading for Europe for diesel, where fuel duty is on average 22.7 pence per litre, compared with the UK's 50.35 pence per litre.

He said: "They're ridiculous prices. It's very unfortunate on all the truckers and hauliers trying to do a job. They've got to go to France to get their diesel."

Vicki Woolley, manager of Texaco on Holdenhurst Road, said tax and the American market were the overriding influences on prices at the pumps.

"The money we make on a litre is nothing," she added.

"There is not much wiggle room in the prices - a penny up or down - not much more than that."

Faisal Ishtiaq, manager of Murco on Ringwood Road said: "My prices have gone up twice in the last one-and-a-half weeks.

"I've had three or four people tell me this morning it's ridiculous."

He added: "I think people can make a difference. But we don't do enough about it."

A spokesman for BP said: "We are aware of emails like this.

"We think our prices remain and always have been competitive."