AMSTERDAM Dutch Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgoz on Wednesday announced her candidacy to lead outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte's conservative VVD party in elections this autumn.

Yesilgoz, 46, who immigrated to the Netherlands from Turkey as a child, would be the first woman to lead the VVD party in national elections.

Other top politicians in the party have said they will not stand, and party leaders are expected to announce they back Yesilgoz later this week. However she must still win a party vote before her leadership is assured.

Rutte, the longest-serving Dutch prime minister, said on Monday he would leave politics following the collapse of his government on Friday over asylum policy. He will continue to serve in a caretaker role until a new cabinet is installed.

A date for national elections in one of the last three Wednesdays in November will be determined later this week.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Mark Potter)