* 3.4 pct wage hike below expectations for 4 pct
* Strike would have cut supplies to oil platforms
By Terje Solsvik
OSLO, April 8 (Reuters) - Norway's unions accepted alast-minute wage deal on Monday and called off a nationwidestrike, sparing the country's vital offshore oil and gasindustry from disruption, both sides involved in thenegotiations said.
Unions accepted a 3.4 percent pay rise, below the centralbank's projection for a 4 percent increase, averting a strikethat would have cut off supplies to key offshore oil and gasplatforms, disrupted traffic at Oslo's international airport andshut key industries.
"This is a responsible and fair settlement, which takes intoaccount jobs and businesses, and ensures that the purchasingpower of the lowest paid gets an extra boost," Roar Flaathen,the head of the LO union said after talks ran more than threehours past the midnight deadline.
Strikes have become common in Norway over the past year asworkers are demanding a greater share of the country's rareeconomic success. Offshore workers last summer shut down largeparts of the oil sector in demand for higher wages, forcing thegovernment to intervene.
NHO, the umbrella organisation representing employers, saidthe moderation in wage growth after last year's 4 percent risewas a welcome and necessary change of pace for the country.
Norway is the world's seventh largest oil exporter andsecond biggest piped gas supplier, and last year's strike pushedglobal oil prices up by around $2 per barrel.
Norway's $500-billion economy grew by 3.5 percent last year,even as the euro zone struggled with another recession.
But wages are already more than 60 percent of the Europeanaverage and stagnating competitiveness is a growing headache,even for the oil sector.
The central bank had expected wages to rise by 4 percent ormore in each of the next four years, despite stagnatingproductivity, as workers take advantage of a general shortage oflabour and Norway's relative success.
Monday's strike would have initially affected 17,000 peopleand would have shut two key bases from which many of Statoil's biggest offshore platforms are supplied with everythingfrom food to fuel and drilling fluid.
