THE HAGUE, 17/02/07 - The Lower House has approved an extension of Dutch participation in a support mission in Iraq for six months to August 2007. The mission may be extended to 2009.

A small group of 14 Dutch military is in Baghdad to train soldiers and members of security organisations there. A clear Lower House majority can accept the decision the cabinet took on 2 February to extend its contribution to the mission, with a total of 220 NATO military, by six months to August.

Defence Minister Henk Kamp said during the debate that the small group of Dutch military may stay in Iraq until the beginning of 2009. This is the planning the cabinet originally had in mind and still has, he said. Each extension will be for six months.

Kamp does think that fewer and fewer Dutch will be needed for this special NATO task, which began in 2005. Only the Socialist Party (SP) and leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) had objections to the Dutch presence in Iraq, because they consider this cannot be seen as separate from support for US policy, to which they are opposed.