The Dutch government has decided to extend the Dutch mission in Afghanistan by another two years until 2010, the government said Friday. "Today the Dutch cabinet decided that we make a new contribution to the ISAF mission in (the Afghan province of) Uruzgan for a period of two years," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told a press conference.
In a widely anticipated announcement the centre-left coalition government said it would extend the mandate of the Dutch troops in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, which expires in August next year, until December 2010.
However, the government said the mission would be slimmed down as Nato partners Czech Republic, France, Hungary and Slovakia had agreed to contribute troops.
A survey published Sunday by well-known pollster Maurice de Hond showed more than half of the Dutch population - 51 percent - as being against an extension of the mandate of their troops in Afghanistan.