A �3m salary is:

�57,692 a week �8,241 a day �343 an hour �5.72 a minute

BP defended the rise, saying 53-year-old Lord Browne was "worth every penny".

But Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, said: "Some fat cats are bigger than others, but this one is clearly the biggest.

"He has certainly set the pace for BP and other oil company workers. He was probably too busy to notice, but petrol prices went up yesterday for ordinary, hard-working motorists."

Union officials also pointed out BP had offered a 3% pay rise this year to workers in its offshore business.

Sir Ken Jackson, general secretary of the Amicus union, said he was "disappointed" to learn of the size of Lord Browne's pay increase, given that BP had recently axed 1,000 jobs at its Grangemouth site in Scotland.

A �6.2m package is:

�119,230 a week �17,000 a day �709 an hour �11.80 a minute

But Sir Robin Nicholson, chairman of BP's remuneration committee, said the company's continued success depended on its ability to attract, motivate and retain world-class executive talent.

"Rewards for our group chief executive and for the other executive directors must be competitive with the rewards in similar global companies," he wrote in BP's annual report.

Sir Robin said the remuneration committee sought external, independent advice on executive salaries.

"In 2001 we decided to increase the reward of our executive directors to ensure competitiveness with other global companies based both in the USA and UK."

Profits fall

Several other BP directors were also given pay increases last year, the annual report showed.

BP reported a sharp fall in quarterly profits last month as demand for oil and gas tumbled in the face of the economic slowdown.

Average salary

The average annual pay packet in England and Wales is �23,338

Net profit for the final three months of last year was �1.54bn, compared with �2.14bn in the previous quarter.

Lord Browne said last month that it was a strong result in a "mixed year" after BP met a key target of boosting its annual production rate by 5.5%.

Oil prices have been under increasing pressure in recent months, halting a strong run of profits growth for BP.

Some companies have increased the price of petrol over the past few days and there have been reports of a 20p a gallon rise by Easter because of fears of a war with Iraq.

According to a Guardian report last year, Lord Browne is not quite the UK's fattest cat.

Leader of the pack is Martin Read of Logica, who earned �27.3m last year.

Sir Chris Gent of Vodafone, Peter Fellner of Celltech and Paul Chisholm of Colt Telecom were also reported to have earned more than Lord Browne.