Netherlands Heading for Early Elections - PM

Early elections are looming in the Netherlands, as talks on a fiscal austerity package broke down Saturday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has announced.

"I have to inform you today that the three parties have failed to come to common answers. Therefore it stops," Rutte told reporters in The Hague, adding that "elections are obvious."

The coalition of the conservative VVD and the Christian Democrats has been negotiating for nearly two months with Geert Wilders' far-right Freedom Party on extra cutbacks worth billions of EUR.

The talks had reached a final stage, with discussions centring on figures from the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis outlining whether the cutbacks agreed by the parties would achieve the three percent budget deficit target for 2013 - and what effect they would have on the Dutch economy, Radio Netherlands reminds.

Rutte has accused Wilders of lacking the political courage and the will to go through with an accord on the cuts.

The PVV party of Geert Wilders supports Prime Minister Mark Rutte's minority government, voting with Rutte on key issues to give it a one-seat majority in the 150-seat parliament. The party is the third largest with 24 members.

Some Bulgarian and Romanian politicians have blamed their country's failure to join the Schengen Agreement on the Dutch cabinet's dependence on PVV. The Netherlands is currently the only EU member state blocking the two Balkan countries' Schengen bids.

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