Amsterdam Councillor Lodewijk Asscher (Labour) has been appointed caretaker mayor of the Dutch capital.

He is taking over from Job Cohen, who stepped down in order to lead Labour in the coming election campaign. Mr Asscher, who was Mr Cohen's second in command, has accepted the appointment, but he has said he does not want to become Amsterdam's next mayor.

Mr Cohen's assumed Labour's leadership after the previous leader, former Finance Minister Wouter Bos, announced he would leave politics in order to have more time for his family. The change of leadership does not appear to have affected the party adversely: pre-election polls show that it has a fair chance of becoming the country's largest, narrowly beating Geert Wilders' extreme right Freedom Party and centrist Christian Democrats.

General elections have been called for 9 June following the collapse of the Christian-Labour coalition government in February.

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