Smarting over comments on Thursday by French president Jacques Chirac, prime Minister Wim Kok has abandoned silent diplomacy and threatened to veto the appointment of a Frenchman to the European Union's most powerful monetary post.

Pressure from within his own government and looming general elections on May 6 have also played a part in driving Kok into the open, political analysts say.

Wim Duisenberg, the former Dutch central banker who heads ECB forerunner the European Monetary Institute, is up against Bank of France governor Jean-Claude Trichet for the job. Duisenberg has the backing of a majority of EU states, while France is alone in pushing its candidate.

On Thursday, Chirac said there would be no softening of the French line. "If Duisenberg is blocked, I am not going to support a Frenchman. There's absolutely no question ofthat," Kok retorted in a statement to Reuters on Friday, expanding on comments he made on Thursday.

"One could imagine a scenario where France says: `Even though the rest of Europe is behind Duisenberg, the appointment will not go through'. Then the Netherlands can say: `The appointment of Trichet will not go through either.'" EU leaders are due to meet over the weekend of May 1-3 to discuss the single currency. They had hoped for a deal on the ECB head before then, but that looks increasingly unlikely. Concession to partner Kok's comments were widely seen as a concession to coalition partner Frits Bolkestein, outspoken leader of the right-leaning Liberals. But Kok stopped short of endorsing a parliamentary motion brought by Bolkestein, calling on France to stand down Trichet or risk inflicting lasting damage on Franco-Dutch ties. Bolkestein forced an overnight debate on the motion.

His proposal was defeated when most opposition deputies sided with Kok's Labour Party (PvdA) and junior coalition partnersD66, but only after angry exchanges between Kok and Bolkestein and amid signs of a harmful split in the coalition. "This motion is genuinely damaging. What we must do is ensure that the majority of EU states stand behind our candidate. We don't need a parliamentary motion for that, and certainly not this one," Kok said, visibly irritated.

Bolkestein fired back with a stinging attack on Dutch stoicism and inaction. "No parliament in Madrid, Rome, Paris or London would hesitate to support such a motion. That is only possible in the Netherlands," he said. "The French president is not budging one inch, and nor should we."

Bolkestein too has an eye on the forthcoming general elections. He is smarting from charges he has gone soft on European economic and monetary union (EMU). In an EMU parliamentary debate on Wednesday, the Liberals dropped most of their objections to Italian membership of the single currency, drawing accusations of a U-turn.

No political party wants to appear weak in the run-up to theMay 6 parliamentary ballot, which takes place just days after EU leaders gather to resolve which countries should join EMU from the start and possibly to tackle the ECB issue.