They have joined a host of other countries reacting to a price growth that started more than a month ago when the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran.

Czechs were paying 41.36 koruna ($1.94) per litre for petrol last weekend -- up 3.66 from two weeks earlier, according to monitoring firm CCS. They were paying 48.08 koruna for diesel -- up 6.29 over the same period.

Prague will cut the excise tax on diesel by 2.35 koruna ($0.11) per litre, from the current 9.95, from April 8.

From the same date, Czech fuel distributors will not be allowed to make a profit of more than 2.5 koruna per litre as the government will cap their profit margins.

"We are starting next Wednesday... to give the market some room to get ready," Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis told reporters.

The government will also set maximum prices to be paid by both individuals and companies daily at 1200 GMT, he added, with weekend prices to be set on Friday and valid until Monday.

Babis, a billionaire in office since last December, leads a three-party nationalist government comprising his catch-all ANO party, the far-right SPD and the eurosceptic Motorists.

Romania's government told media in a statement it would cut the excise tax on diesel by 30 bani ($0.06) per litre.

Already last week, the EU member of 19 million people capped profit margins on fuel to combat what it described as a "crisis situation".

Babis on Thursday criticised central European countries for a lack of coordination on curbing fuel prices.

"We perceive what is happening in neighbouring countries, and each country is more or less doing whatever they want," he said.

Slovakia has set two fuel prices, one for locals and one for vehicles with foreign licence plates, to stop people driving across the border to get cheaper petrol.

And Poland slashed VAT on fuel from 23 percent to eight percent, which no other country in the region has done.

"Instead of coordinating prices within the region... we have total chaos," Babis said.