Recently, Becker and Geiger and Bafna, Berman and Fujito gave 2-approximation algorithms for the feedback vertex set problem in undirected graphs. We show how their algorithms can be explained in terms of the primal-dual method for approximation algorithms, which has been used to derive approximation algorithms for network design problems. In the process, we give a new integer programming formulation for the feedback vertex set problem whose integrality gap is at worst a factor of two; the

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... known cycle formulation has an integrality gap of (log n), as shown by Even, Naor, Schieber and Zosin. We also give a new 2-approximation algorithm for the problem which is a simpliÿcation of the Bafna et al. algorithm.