THE HAGUE, 21/03/03 - An informal meeting between Christian democratic (CDA) deputy leader Maxime Verhagen and Labour (PvdA) leader Wouter Bos failed yesterday to restore the breached confidence between the two parties. "You cannot change that from one day to the next," said Verhagen after the meeting.

Verhagen indicated he made it clear to Bos "in words that could not be misunderstood" that the CDA was still extremely disgruntled about the attitude of the PvdA in the Iraq debate. "For the PvdA, it must be clear that as a future government partner, you must also defend difficult decisions. Even if the streets are full of demonstrators. "

According to Verhagen, the CDA had made the PvdA aware beforehand that the caretaker cabinet would decide to give political but not military support to the war. CDA, which forms the caretaker government with the conservatives (VVD) and Pim Fortuyn List (LPF), saw this as a reaching out to the PvdA leader. Bos agreed privately to accept the position, but nevertheless rejected the political support during last Tuesday's debate, according to Verhagen.

Bos yesterday denied that he had made a U-turn. "The PvdA position has been the same for weeks. " He said a number of misunderstandings have been cleared away, but no conclusions have yet been drawn. Verhagen said the government formation negotiations between CDA and PvdA are not broken off, but agreement must first be reached on Iraq policy before the other subjects can be considered.

Insiders suggest that the parties are hoping for a quick war to enable them to restart negotiations soon. The EU summit in Brussels, which CDA leader Jan Pieter Balkenende is attending as premier, will in any case mean a few days breathing space. But sources within the party say many CDA politicians have had it with PvdA.

Queen Beatrix is not yet planning to break off her state visit to Chile and Brazil. If the formation process founders, she will have to come back, but the Government Information Service (RVD) said yesterday there is no question of that for now. The RVD added that problems with the government formation would play a much smaller role than the war in relation to a possible change in the queen's travel plans.