Hopes of an end to the Grangemouth oil refinery dispute have risen after a proposal was drawn up to break a deadlocked row over pensions.

The move followed peace talks between leaders of the Unite union and bosses from Ineos, which owns the giant refinery in Scotland.

Ineos chief Jim Ratcliffe took part in the meeting, held within hours of the end of a 48-hour strike by 1,200 workers, which led to the closure of Grangemouth.

A brief joint statement said: "A meeting was held in London between Jim Ratcliffe and Tom Crotty of Ineos and the joint general secretaries of Unite, Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley.

"It was a constructive and meaningful discussion and ended in a proposal that will be considered by the company and the union in the coming days with a view to finding a resolution to the pensions dispute."

The strike held in protest over changes to the Grangemouth plant's pension scheme, has hit fuel supplies and closed a major pipeline bringing oil to the UK.

While workers were due to return at 6am on Tuesday, it could take some time for normal operations to resume.

Emergency fuel supplies have been arriving from Europe to ease the pressure on forecourts in Scotland, and a fleet of between 500 and 600 tankers is also expected to move out of Grangemouth to replenish supplies.

Any signs of panic-buying appeared to have abated, with retailers reporting lower-than-expected demand on Sunday.

At midday on Sunday, 28 stations had run dry, but this was only a small proportion of the 956 forecourts across the country.

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