THE HAGUE, 28/04/07 - Defence State Secretary Cees van der Knaap wants to halt a partnership with France on the development of an unmanned spy plane.

The French government collaborates poorly on the development of the MALE/UAV aircraft, the state secretary said. He now wants to form alliances with other partners for the purchasing of existing spy planes. The French have "drained the blood from the fingernails" of Van der Knaap, he said in a debate with the Lower House on his equipment policy.

He also expressed anger about the French industry, because it is in his view responsible for the delayed supply of new transport helicopters of the NH90 type. Due to the delay, which was already made known earlier, the Netherlands has to invest 6.5 million euros to keep ten Lynch helicopters operational for longer.

The NH90 cockpits are inadequate. The Christian democrats (CDA) proposed to allow US cockpits to be bought for the NH90s. But this would require changing aviation authority regulations.

The House questioned whether bilateral or multilateral materiel development projects in general are useful. It urged Van der Knaap to buy more existing equipment in future.