The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will submit the resignation of his cabinet after failing to agree on measures to curb immigration, Dutch news agency ANP reported today.

The Dutch prime minister is expected to hold a press conference and convenes an emergency cabinet.

ANP cites sources as saying that the fourth coalition government under Rutte collapsed as he was unable to agree how to limit the number of asylum seekers in the Netherlands after three days of intense negotiations.

Requests for comment from Rutte’s office went unanswered this evening.

A proposal by Rutte’s conservative VVD party to limit the flow of asylum seekers to the Netherlands has torn apart his four-party governing coalition as the two smaller parties refused to back his proposals.

Tensions came to a head this week when Rutte called for support for a proposal to limit entry for children of war refugees already in the Netherlands and force families to wait at least two years before they can be reunited.

Asylum applications in the Netherlands rose by a third last year to more than 46,000, and the government has predicted they could rise to more than 70,000 this year – surpassing the previous high of 2015.