The Dutch government dropped plans to fully open the country's labour market to new EU state workers, postponing the decision until later this year.

At the beginning of April the government announced that citizens of the eight new EU states in Central and Eastern European countries would be freely admitted to the labour market of the Netherlands from next year.

The proposal however met harsh opposition in parliament after the country's two largest parties demanded further guarantees that an expected influx - primarily from Poland - would not lead to unfair competition for Dutch workers.

The cabinet decided to postpone a final decision on the opening of the labour market until the end of 2006, and present to the parliament another report.

The Netherlands was one of several EU countries to impose restrictions on labour from the new EU states in 2004.

Finland, Portugal and Spain are to fully open their labour markets for workers from east European member states, while Denmark will do this gradually over the next three years.

Belgium and Austria have said they will keep their temporary ban, while Greece and Luxembourg are yet to make their minds.

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