GRONINGEN, 06/01/04 - Conservative (VVD) MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Labour (PvdA) Mayor Jacques Wallage of Groningen will cross swords after all. At the beginning of February, the anti-Islam MP and the advocate of multiculturalism will take part in a extra-parliamentary debate.

The public debate is to take place in Groningen, revealed Remco Kouwenhoven, leader of the Groningen VVD councillors, yesterday. An exact date is not yet known. The plan is for more politicians to participate and Socialist (SP) MP Agnes Kant has already agreed to take part, Kouwenhoven said.

Wallage previously refused a request to enter into discussion with Hirsi Ali in the television programme Buitenhof. His spokesman confirmed yesterday that the PvdA mayor - and former parliamentary party leader - was now prepared to take part in the debate after all. "He would not normally do this: a mayor should not enter discussions with MPs. But in view of the situation, he cannot back out."

In December, Wallage wrote a letter in a personal capacity but on council writing paper to VVD parliamentary leader Jozias van Aartsen, asking him to call Hirsi Ali to order. In a visit to an Islamic school, the Somali MP cast doubts on the existence of Allah in the presence of Moslem children and admonished their parents to send them to an ordinary school. Wallage claimed that this was a violation of constitutional rights and an incitement to violence.

Van Aartsen rejected Wallage's accusations. The comparison made by Wallage between the treatment of Moslems and the Holocaust went down particularly badly, with PvdA leader Wouter Bos as well. Van Aartsen recently blamed the PvdA in daily newspaper De Telegraaf for the unsuccessful Dutch integration policy.