AMSTERDAM: The Dutch Liberal Party and the Christian Democrats have agreed to form a government with support from the right-wing anti-Islam Freedom Party, creating the first minority administration in the Netherlands since World War II.

''We have just, and I'm glad about it, completed the agreements that will shape our political co-operation,'' the Liberal Party leader, Mark Rutte, said.

It has taken three attempts to form the coalition after the inconclusive June 9 election. The government, in which Mr Rutte, 43, will be prime minister, will have 52 seats in the lower house of parliament and rely on the 24 Freedom Party politicians, led by Geert Wilders, to give it the smallest possible majority in the 150-seat chamber.

''This is new for the Netherlands; it's an experiment,'' said Kees Aarts, a professor of political science at the University of Twente in Enschede.

Austerity measures will be the most important issue on the new government's agenda. The Netherlands, the fifth-largest economy in the euro zone, needs to narrow its budget deficit from almost 6 per cent of gross domestic product this year to 3 per cent by 2013 to meet European Union rules.