THE HAGUE, 18/02/10 - The cabinet might collapse this week or in the coming month. Damage inflicted to the relations between Labour (PvdA) and the Christian democrats (CDA) may have become irreparable now that PvdA is ignoring an official request by NATO to stay longer in the Afghan region of Uruzgan.

Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen (CDA) told the Lower House last week that NATO had officially asked the Netherlands to stay active militarily in Uruzgan beyond December 2010. Generally, an official NATO request is only made if the government of the country involved is in agreement.

The atmosphere in the coalition, which has for some time been tense over a number of issues, reached freezing point when PvdA leader Wouter Bos subsequently said he had not asked for any NATO request. This irritated Verhagen, who claimed Bos knew the request was forthcoming.

The cabinet on Friday discussed the tensions over the mission in Afghanistan and all players involved afterwards tried to remove the impression that they were still at loggerheads. Verhagen on the one hand did not operate solo by making the NATO request come through and Bos has not committed himself to any request, the cabinet stated.

But the crisis returned yesterday bigger than before. Bos said the PvdA's 'no' to any further role for Dutch soldiers in Uruzgan was final. He added that he expected the cabinet to make a decision on the future of the Dutch contribution in Afghanistan this Friday.

But Verhagen said he could not see how any decision could be reached Friday. He would not say to reporters whether he thought the cabinet would collapse. Bos also refused to answer this question. He seemed relieved, while the CDA minister looked extremely unhappy and worried.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende (CDA) claimed after yesterday's meeting all the options are still on the table. "We have a major international responsibility to seriously examine the NATO secretary general's request," he told reporters.

The cabinet earlier promised the Lower House to take a decision by 1 March, just ahead of the local council elections on 3 March. CDA might give in to the PvdA pressure and ask NATO for a new request - to stay elsewhere in Afghanistan - but Verhagen will unlikely wish to do so before the elections, as it would hurt the party's results as well as his international reputation.

Conversely, by postponing a decision until mid-March CDA can give the electorate the impression that PvdA will change its mind after all after the elections. Bos, whose PvdA has a reputation of 'flip-flopping', however seems to have made up his mind.

Bos said his 'no' vote is keeping his party's promise to voters. "That means there must be a negative response to NATO'S request. That decision can be taken on Friday".

NATO has asked the Dutch to stay on in Uruzgan with a smaller mission up to 1 August 2011. The request was sent to Premier Balkenende on 4 February.