Dutch PM to 'tender cabinet's resignation'

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is to tender his cabinet's resignation to Queen Beatrix after the collapse of talks on austerity measures, Dutch media reported on Monday. Rutte would present his resignation to the monarch at a meeting at the palace later in the day, ANP said. "The Prime Minister will meet her Majesty the Queen during their weekly discussions to inform her over the current political situation," the government's information service (RVD) said in a statement earlier. The meeting is set down for 2.00 pm (1200 GMT). Rutte's government faced its biggest crisis on Monday as an agreement, reached barely 18-months ago between his liberal Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and junior partner, Verhagen's Christian Democrats (CDA) with the far-right party of anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, lay on the rocks. The ruling VVD-CDA coalition and its far-right parliamentary ally had launched make-or-break talks on the contentious issue of austerity measures on March 5. The talks aimed at cutting 16 billion euros (U$21 billion) off the budget, which sat at 4.7 percent of gross domestic product for 2011 and steer Europe's fifth-largest economy back into back within EU deficit targets. But Wilders quit the talks and shortly afterwards Rutte announced its failure, saying new elections were likely.