New Delhi, Jan. 9 -- Dozens of angry farmers demonstrated in France and Greece Thursday, halting traffic and blocking key roads with tractors to protest European Union plans to move forward with a free trade deal with five South American nations.

Farmers drove about a hundred tractors into Paris and gathered in front of France's powerful lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, under close watch from a large number of police officers.

In Greece, farmers escalated nationwide protests, launching a 48-hour blockade of major highways, junctions and toll stations. Tractors lined key routes across the country, halting all traffic except emergency vehicles in protest of the contentious EU-Mercosur agreement and rising costs.

European...