European Union finance ministers struggled yesterday to forge a response to food and fuel price inflation, proposing remedies from windfall taxes on oil companies to the suspension of various food import tariffs.

Several ministers, notably Wilhelm Molterer of Austria, denounced what they termed "speculation" on commodities futures markets, saying it partly accounted for recent increases in food and oil prices. But the attack attracted little support and was omitted from a letter to EU heads of state and government, who will discuss food price inflation at a Brussels summit on June 19.