The Liberal Democrats have called for newsagents to be given more help to deal with rising delivery costs from newspaper wholesalers.

Brian Cotter, the party's small business spokesman, has asked the Office of Fair Trading to protect small newsagents from escalating delivery costs charged by wholesalers for the supply of newspapers.

He claimed the delivery market is dominated by just three suppliers, and, as a result, newsagents have had to stump up for 650 per cent increases over the past 10 years.

Cotter said businesses were already feeling the pressure from supermarkets and needed urgent help.

"Many local newsagents are facing enormous pressure due to rising carriage charges which they cannot absorb due to fixed cover prices on newspapers," he said.

"Small newsagents play a vital role in our local communities and it would be wholly unacceptable if many were forced to close as a result of uncompetitive practices."