<p>I'm trying to parse an international datetime string similar to:</p>

<pre><code>24-okt-08 21:09:06 CEST
</code></pre>

<p>So far I've got something like:</p>

<pre><code>CultureInfo culture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("nl-BE");
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact("24-okt-08 21:09:06 CEST",
    "dd-MMM-yy HH:mm:ss ...", culture);
</code></pre>

<p>The problem is what should I use for the '...' in the format string? Looking at the <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4.aspx" rel="noreferrer">Custom Date and Time Format String</a> MSDN page doesn't seem to list a format string for parsing timezones in PST/CEST/GMT/UTC form.</p>

AFAIK the time zone abbreviations are not recognized. However if you replace the abbreviation with the time zone offset, it will be OK. E.g.:
```
```
DateTime dt1 = DateTime.ParseExact("24-okt-08 21:09:06 CEST".Replace("CEST", "+2"), "dd-MMM-yy HH:mm:ss z", culture);
DateTime dt2 = DateTime.ParseExact("24-okt-08 21:09:06 CEST".Replace("CEST", "+02"), "dd-MMM-yy HH:mm:ss zz", culture);
DateTime dt3 = DateTime.ParseExact("24-okt-08 21:09:06 CEST".Replace("CEST", "+02:00"), "dd-MMM-yy HH:mm:ss zzz", culture);
```
```