Maverick right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders said on Friday he would weed out radical Muslims by sealing the border to non-Western immigrants for five years and shutting down mosques advocating fundamentalism

Wilders, who inherited the populist mantle of slain politician Pim Fortuyn, told AP in an interview that the Netherlands must take strong measures to stamp out Muslim fundamentalism _ or face the collapse of the country’s democratic system. "We were asleep for too long," he said. "The Netherlands has been too tolerant to intolerant people for too long." Wilders, who stunned the political scene with his success at the polls, left the free-market coalition partner Liberal Party two months ago for backing the candidacy of Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country _ to the European Union. He formed his own party. Recent polls suggest he would win more seats than the Liberal Party, known by its Dutch acronym, VVD, if elections were held today, and that his party would finish among the top three parties. Despite tough measures enacted over the last two years to limit immigration, Wilders said the government has failed to respond adequately to a growing Muslim militancy in the Netherlands.