No Anti-Dutch Troop Backlash From Koran Film: Gvt

An intensive diplomatic effort by the Dutch government would contain any fallout similar to the cartoon controversy, van Middelkoop said.

A film about the Koran by a right-wing Dutch MP who has described the book as "fascist" is unlikely to threaten the safety of Dutch troops in Afghanistan, Dutch Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop said on Tuesday.

Speaking in Australia during talks on military progress in Afghanistan, van Middelkoop said a diplomatic offensive by the Dutch government in Muslim countries would ensure the anti-Islam documentary "Fitna" does not result in a backlash.

"I don't think it will be risky for the military in Afghanistan," van Middelkoop told Reuters and a small group of Australian journalists. "But we have to be alert, and we are."

The Dutch government has warned the short film, expected to be released this month by populist lawmaker Geert Wilders, might spark unrest and sanctions similar to those unleashed when Danish newspapers published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in 2006.

Wilders is expected to explain on March 25 whether he will go ahead with screening "Fitna", a Koranic term sometimes translated as "strife". He has in the past described Islam's holy book as an inspiration for militant violence.

Van Middelkoop said Wilders, in making the film, was behaving in a "very irresponsible way", accusing him of "doing damage to a lot of Dutch interests all over the world".

But an intensive diplomatic effort by the Dutch government would contain any fallout similar to the Danish cartoon controversy, he said.

"We have learned a lot from the Danish cartoon problem, and one of the lessons for us is that we have to act immediately in a prevention way that it is not our product, that it is not our conviction," van Middelkoop said.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer last week said NATO troops would come under fire in Afghanistan if the film was screened, but van Middelkoop shook off threats of attack last week on Dutch and Danish troops by Afghan student protesters.

"We are now very active in the field of diplomacy, active diplomacy, towards the Islamic world, the Arab world, to try to convince everyone that it is not our responsibility," he said.

Van Middelkoop, whose government last year extended a 1,500-strong Dutch contingent operating as lead partner to 1,000 Australian troops in Oruzgan province, backed Australian and U.S. criticism of European NATO member efforts in the south of the country.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon will next month increase pressure on France and Germany to shoulder more of the fighting against Taliban militants at a NATO summit in Bucharest.

"Sometimes I'm a little bit jealous of Mr Fitzgibbon, because he has free role more or less (to criticise), because he is not a member of NATO," van Middelkoop said, adding that restrictions on European deployment in Afghanistan -- known as caveats -- should be weakened.

Van Middelkoop said he expected the Bucharest summit to reach agreement on a roadmap for Afghanistan to include more civilian assistance to back up western military efforts.

"It is our conviction that within the next 2 to 2-½ years it must be possible that the nucleus of the provincial reconstruction team we have now will go from all-military to most of the people being civil people," he said.