In the framework of string percolation, the transverse momentum distributions in heavy ion collisions at all centralities and energies are shown to follow an universal behaviour, the shape of the distributions depending essentially on the transverse density of strings. We find that the relative suppression of intermediate and high p_T production in central nucleus--nucleus collisions has the some origin as the narrowing of multiplicity distributions, the clustering of strings. The clustering of strings also explains naturally the dependence on the centrality of the transverse momentum fluctuations and the strength of the two and three body Bose-Einstein correlations.

PACS numbers: 25.75.Nq, 12.38.Mh, 24.85.+p