The Dutch government is paying €1.7m to Microsoft to be able to continue using its Windows XP system, on top of a €3m payment for support services made last year.

Microsoft stopped supporting the 14-year-old system a year ago but the Dutch government did not manage to migrate all its 40,000 computers in time.

Ministers said then the changeover would be completed by the beginning of 2015. However, some 5,000 computers still use Windows XP, making a new payment for support services essential. The new deal is for six months.

A spokesman told news agency ANP the 5,000 computers are running systems which are essential and cannot simply be switched over to a new operating system