As one political crisis passes another one looms. The Dutch government has narrowly survived the fallout of the Davids report on the Iraq war, but now the other foreign war is causing serious cracks in the coalition.

The Labour Party has definitely rejected NATO's request that the Netherlands stay in the Afghan province of Uruzgan for another year on a training mission. Labour leader and deputy prime minister Wouter Bos informed the other two government parties, the Christian Democrats and the Christian Union, of this during discussions about Afghanistan.

He said his party would honour its promise to the voters that the last Dutch troops would leave Afghanistan by the end of this year and he asked the cabinet officially to reject NATO's request this coming Friday.

Christian Democrat Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen and Christian Union Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop have both expressed willingness to extend the Dutch mission in Uruzgan.

Following the cabinet talks, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said that, as far as he was concerned, the options were still open. He emphasized the "great international responsibility" the Netherlands has to examine NATO's request carefully.

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