THE HAGUE, 25/03/03 - At nine p.m. yesterday it was still unclear whether the formation talks between the Christian democrats (CDA) and Labour (PvdA) would be broken off or not over the Iraq question.

After several days of enforced peace between the CDA and PvdA - because Premier Jan Peter Balkenende was at the EU summit in Brussels - both parties met again yesterday to find out whether their row over the war in Iraq would mean the end of the formation talks. Their positions have to date been remained far apart.

CDA supports the war in Iraq. Not wanting to spoil the formation with PvdA, it got its conservative (VVD) and Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) coalition partners' ministers to back the position to politically but not militarily support the war. But PvdA last week rejected the caretaker government's standpoint. Expectations were that the two could eventually reach a compromise, but the atmosphere deteriorated further last weekend.

Very exceptionally, CDA Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was present at the formation talks yesterday. He had already sharpened up the differences on Sunday evening by stating that the PvdA was playing fast and loose with its position. "It (the PvdA position) is like a day-to-day policy course. How can I explain the lack of a PvdA position internationally. No foreign minister whatsoever could do that. With such a position, the Netherlands would not be taken seriously internationally. "

Insiders believe PvdA leader Wouter Bos had already made the formation impossible on Sunday evening by again stating that the war was not justified and that the Netherlands' political support for it was unacceptable for him. To add fuel to the flames, he added that he regretted that he had not participated in the anti-war demonstration in Amsterdam last Saturday, where happily other PvdA party members were present, Bos noted.

Bos made it clear yesterday prior to the talks that he did not intend to blow up the cabinet formation. He maintained he never said the war on Iraq was illegal. "I merely said that supporting it is politically unjustified, which is something completely different. " Bos said he hoped that misunderstandings could be cleared up.