The Netherlands will lend a maximum of 17 billion euros to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of the broader agreement reached last Friday among leaders of the 16 eurozone countries and at least six other EU countries outside the eurozone.

Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager informed the Dutch parliament on Thursday about the decision. The EU nations met last week in an attempt to stabilise the euro and move Europe out of a deepening debt crisis.

The 17-billion-euro loan is part of a 200-billion-euro bilateral package which EU leaders are making available to the IMF to help fund possible bailouts to countries in dire financial straits.

British Prime Minister David Cameron rejected the deal after Germany and France said no to his demands to include protections for the City of London from future financial regulations.

The US administration does not plan to pump money into the IMF to help fund possible bailouts in Europe.

Rotten construction
The Dutch Central Bank will provide the loan, which will be guaranteed by the government. A majority of MPs voted in favour of the deal on Thursday evening.

Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported on Thursday that the opposition Labour Party - the second largest party in the country - would support the deal even though it considers the agreement weak. MP Ronald Plasterk labelled it a "rotten construction".

Backing  from the Labour Party was crucial as Geert Wilders' Freedom Party - which supports the minority conservative and Christian Democrats coalition government from the parliamentary backbenches - voted against the package. The Socialist Party also rejected the IMF deal.

(jn/hs)

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