Immigration tops Euro-Maghreb summit agenda

North African leaders will press southern Europe today for more help to stop boatloads of illegal immigrants leaving their shores, saying they had no intention of playing gatekeepers of the Mediterranean alone.

The leaders of 10 west Mediterranean countries hold an unprecedented informal summit in Tunisia today and tomorrow that diplomatic sources said may produce a "contract" on illegal immigration.

With scores of illegal immigrants from North Africa drowning in recent months in desperate bids to reach European shores, the issue is a top foreign policy priority for the European Union.

But leaders of five North African states say there is little they can do on their own.

"We understand the eagerness of the European side to fight illegal immigration but we don't want to act as policemen or gatekeepers for them. We want co-management of the issue," said a senior government official in Tunis, summing up what was expected to be one of the dominant themes of the summit.

Countries like Libya, Morocco and Tunisia have repeatedly asked for more financial and technical help from Europe to stem the exodus of migrants.

"We need money, a lot of money, and high technology, helicopters, radar, binoculars," Libya's justice minister said in a typical comment to an Italian newspaper recently.

The Tunis summit, the first of its kind, will bring together leaders of the so-called five-plus-five dialogue, an informal forum set up in 1991 to discuss security, immigration and trade and tackle rifts between the West and the Muslim world.

The group comprises France, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain and the five-Arab Maghreb Union members, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Mauritania and Tunisia.

French diplomatic sources said the summit could produce a "migrants contract" covering both legal and illegal immigration. That would be particularly welcome for Spain and Italy - magnets for migrants making the relatively short trip from the North African coast.

Officials and diplomats in Tunis said the summit would also discuss economic cooperation, security and political issues as well as the dialogue of civilisations - a euphemism for cooperation against radical Islam.

"Europe will ask the Maghreb to stop illegal immigration and be more vigilant against radical Islam, Maghreb leaders will ask for more aid and economic cooperation," said a European diplomat.

As emphasised by US Secretary of State Colin Powell's whirlwind tour of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia this week, the West says it is eager to help Maghreb nations along the road to democracy while enlisting them in the "war on terrorism".

Morocco and Tunisia have both been targets of Islamic militant suicide bombings in the past two years. Algeria is emerging from more than a decade of violence pitting government troops against Islamic rebels.