THE HAGUE, 20/03/03 - The Christian democrats (CDA) and Labour (PvdA) collided yesterday over the Iraq question. After lengthy negotiations and a series of harsh exchanges, the parties failed to agree on a position they could both accept. Whether the formation is now over remains unclear.

CDA leader Jan Peter Balkenende and PvdA leader Wouter Bos yesterday morning spoke separately with 'informateur' Frans Leijnse, who is leading the coalition negotiations along with the sick and absent Piet Hein Donner (CDA). Later, the two camps decided in a joint meeting with Leijnse that their positions on the Iraq question differ too widely.

Balkenende said after the second meeting that "no conclusions had been drawn". Bos spoke of "A good meeting". The two parties will continue their talks on Iraq later, but when remained unclear.

Insiders suggest that the CDA and PvdA are hoping for a quick war, so that they can happily start talking again as soon as the last bomb has fallen. On the other hand, a breach of confidence has arisen on the question that will be difficult to mend, and both parties will have to take their credibility with their own supporters into account.

Bos has no possible coalition partners apart from the CDA. Balkenende, on the other hand, can try to continue the present coalition with the conservatives (VVD) and Pim Fortuyn List (LPF), for which he gave an emphatic first preference during the election campaign.

But the VVD made it clear yesterday that it does not want to join the negotiating table. "The CDA and PvdA are the largest parties. They must take up their responsibilities. They have now been avoiding each other for eight weeks," according to VVD leader Gerrit Zalm. He blamed the crisis in the cabinet formation on the "Amateurism" of both parties.

Zalm would disapprove if the two parties were to opt for a breathing space. Due to the international crisis and the deteriorating Dutch economy, the Netherlands must have a stable cabinet quickly, he argued.

Balkenende had stated yesterday morning that Bos went too far in the Iraq debate on Tuesday. "There is a question of damaged confidence. You have to be able to trust each other in a new cabinet. " On Tuesday, Bos demanded that the cabinet withdraw its political support for American action in Iraq.

The CDA saw the position of the caretaker cabinet that it dominates - 'political but no military support for a war' - as a repulsed reaching out to the PvdA. "If you make such an approach, you expect a reaction. The reaction of the PvdA was not good," said Defence State Secretary Kees van der Knaap, a confidante of Balkenende, yesterday ahead of the rupture.

Bos considered that "the opposition is no alternative to be ashamed of. " He considers it would be "difficult to explain" if the parties let the formation process explode now only to pick up the thread again in a few weeks.