NEW DUTCH LEADERS PLAN STRICTER IMMIGRATION AND DRUG-USE LIMITS

PARIS -- The center-right political coalition set to take power later this
month in the Netherlands announced plans Wednesday for tough new
restrictions on immigration and a crackdown on drugs, including limits on
the famous coffeehouses where marijuana is openly sold.

The coalition will create a new Ministry of Immigration and Integration, to
be run by a minister from the party of Pim Fortuyn, the maverick politician
who was assassinated in May during a campaign for strict limits on
immigration. His party and others with anti-foreigner platforms received a
wave of sympathy votes in an election nine days later.

The new government plans to admit fewer immigrants "who are in danger of
ending up in a disadvantaged situation," according to an English copy of
the coalition's policy summary, released by the Dutch Embassy here. The
government also will make it "more difficult for members of ethnic
minorities to bring a partner from their home country to the Netherlands,"
the summary says.

If the new policies are enacted, the Netherlands will join other European
countries, led by Denmark, that are toughening immigration laws after
recent election victories by rightist and populist politicians.

The Netherlands historically has been one of Europe's most welcoming and
tolerant societies. Immigrants and their descendants make up about 10
percent of the country's population, and more than a third in the country's
biggest cities, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague.

The incoming government also said it plans to tighten the country's
tolerant laws on cannabis, which is sold openly in licensed coffeeshops.

"The criteria governing coffeeshops will be enforced more strictly, and
coffeeshops will no longer be tolerated in the vicinity of schools and the
national borders," the policy summary said.

The latter change would address concerns of some neighboring countries with
more restrictive drug laws. People there have complained that their young
people crossed the border to take advantage of the Netherlands' liberal rules.

The program also pledges a crackdown on the manufacture and use of the drug
ecstasy. The Netherlands has emerged as a major center of the drug.

"The production of and trade in drugs in the Netherlands has reached
unacceptable levels and must be tackled more firmly," the summary says.