Dutch PM admits to being "a bit boring"

AMSTERDAM, Apr 23 (Reuters) Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has admitted to being ''maybe a bit boring'', news agency ANP reported.

Balkenende added this did not have to be a negative point, although ''a bit of cheerfulness surely wouldn't hurt''.

Dutch public broadcaster NOS yesterday said the Prime Minister was replying to a suggestion at a party event that the Christian Democrats should try to target younger people by campaigning in discotheques. Balkenende hinted he was not suitable for that.

Last year, Belgium was forced to apologise after Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht described Balkenende as a mix between boy wizard Harry Potter and a ''brave righteous bourgeois'' without charisma.

REUTERS AK KN0920