AMSTERDAM - According to television news programme RTL nieuws the Kolenkit neighbourhood in west Amsterdam heads a list of twenty neighbourhoods in the Netherlands with the worst social-economic problems.

In 2007, the programme went to court to force then Housing Minister Ella Vogelaar to release a list of 40 problem neighbourhoods.

The minister did not want the list released because the neighbourhoods had been ordered according to the severity of the problems they faced.

Vogelaar feared that the publication of the list would stigmatise the areas.

The Council of State ruled that the list could remain secret, but in the end RTL Nieuws received a copy of the top 20 from the Planning Ministry.

Neighbourhoods in Rotterdam dominate the top of the list, coming in second, third and forth position. Ondiep in Utrecht is the fifth worst neighbourhood in the country.

Ms Vogelaar was forced to resign as minister last November when her fellow party ministers decided they had lost confidence in her style of working.

When she came into office she was charged with turning "problem hoods into desirable districts".

Radio Netherlands/ Expatica