THE HAGUE, March 6 (Reuters) - Europe needs to be fast,

selective and aggressive in supporting key tech industries amid

U.S.-China trade tensions, the Dutch economic affairs minister

said in an interview on Wednesday.

Micky Adriaansens has refocused Dutch industrial tech policy

on protecting and promoting a handful of technologies where the

Netherlands has pre-existing strengths such as semiconductors,

where Dutch equipment firm ASML is a powerhouse.

"I'm going to talk to Breton tomorrow," she told Reuters,

referring to European industry commissioner Thierry Breton.

"My message will be we need a strategy for Europe on (key)

technologies."

While the European Chips Act was intended as a response to

U.S. and Chinese chip subsidy programmes, it has so far only

approved support by the French government for STMicroelectronics

to build a factory in Crolles, France. Intel ( INTC ) and TSMC have

announced plans to build plants in Germany, but these have not

been approved by the European Union.

"We have good ideas in Europe, and I've really appreciated

what the Commission has done in the past few years," Adriaansens

said.

"But we need to act, and we're not so good at that - the

Americans are better at that ... We need to speed up the

execution."

She said as a small trading nation, the Netherlands faced

additional challenges at a time when free trade is under

pressure.

Under Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a strong candidate to

become the next NATO secretary general, the Netherlands has so

far supported a U.S.-led campaign to restrict ASML from

exporting its best equipment to customers in China.

Adriaansens said that the need to protect technology was a

new reality and her office last year introduced security vetting

for foreign tech investments.

But she said the Netherlands would not necessarily support

further restrictions or an attempt to isolate China

technologically.

"You have to be very careful what you're doing because it

also has negative side effects," she said.

"I cannot speak for the American state, they have to do it

for themselves, and they will. But from our point of view, we

need the world, we need everybody to have an open economy."