Dutch troops will begin leaving southern Afghanistan in August, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said today.

The Netherlands' coalition government has collapsed over the country's military mission in Afghanistan, the prime minister said today.

Dutch voters appeared evenly split between the country’s two major parties as they voted today, raising the prospect that the next government may be a “grand coalition” of the rival camps.

THE Netherlands is set for a cliff-hanging general election today. A year ago, a dapper gay populist who railed against immigrants in general and Muslims in particular and then was shot to death in a car-park nine days before elections.

Jan Peter Balkenende, a professor of Christian philosophy who brought youthful energy to his disunited party, emerged today as the favourite to become the Netherlands’ next prime minister.