The Dutch cabinet is holding to a decision to pull 1,350 Dutch troops out of southern Iraq in mid-March, but no definite decision has been taken, according to reports from Friday evening's cabinet meeting. "We are not closing our eyes to international developments," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said after the meeting, the first in 2005. But he said the decision taken in the summer to withdraw in March this year was "unchanged". Balkenende referred to indications that a majority in the upper chamber of the Dutch parliament is in favour of prolonging the mission in the al-Muthanna province by six months. Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell this week called for the Dutch mission to be extended, and the British, with whom the Dutch cooperate closely in southern Iraq also want the troops to remain. Balkenende's three-party coalition is divided on the issue.
