Dutch former deputy prime minister and Labour party leader Wouter Bos has accused caretaker Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop of withholding critical information that could have prevented the fall of the Dutch cabinet in February over Labour's refusal to extend the military mission in Afghanistan.

Mr Bos made the accusation during a reconstruction, televised on Friday, of the fall of the fourth government of Christian Democrat Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkendende. Mr Bos describes Mr Van Middelkoop's decision to withhold the information as "irresponsible."

On 20 February, the day the cabinet fell, Christian Union Defence Minister Van Middelkoop revealed that NATO had offered the Netherlands training activities elsewhere in Afghanistan in case the Netherlands decided not to extend its mission in Uruzgan province. Mr Van Middelkoop had received the NATO offer as early as January but did not reveal it until well into the night of 20 February. Mr Bos says by then the cabinet could no longer be saved.

Speaking in the same TV programme, Mr Van Middelkoop said the differences within the cabinet over the mission in Uruzgan had to be resolved first.

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