Europe presses N. Africa on immigration
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Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi, listens during the opening session of the "5 plus 5" summit in Tunis.
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TUNIS, Tunisia (Reuters) -- European countries facing North Africa across the Mediterranean divide called on its leaders on Friday to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.
Muslim North Africa, with an 80 million population of whom most earn less than $2,000 a year, is facing an exodus of its own and has become a transit point for tens of thousands of sub-Saharan Africans seeking a better life in the West.
The leaders of 10 west Mediterranean countries, including France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, are holding an informal and unprecedented summit in Tunisia to discuss immigration, the U.S.-led war on terror and closer economic ties.
In recent months, dozens of Africans have drowned trying to reach the West on rickety boats, often via the island of Malta or across the Strait of Gibraltar between Morocco and Spain.
"Europe has needed immigrants and continues to need them but not in conditions of anarchy and indignity," Romano Prodi, president of the EU's executive Commission, told the meeting.
While the two-day forum was officially about boosting ties, behind closed doors Western leaders were expected to press their North African neighbors to tackle clandestine immigration.
An estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants enter the wealthy bloc each year. The issue is gaining importance as the EU prepares to admit 10 new member states in May next year.
"Fortress Europe wants North Africa to keep its citizens at home as well as preventing the region from becoming a transit point," a French diplomat said.
The leaders of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia say there is little they can do on their own and some have requested more financial and technical help from the EU.
Rare North Africa summit
Morocco's King Mohammed told the meeting illegal migration had "perverse effects on relations," an apparent reference to strains with Spain over the issue. He said the issue required "an integrated security approach within the framework of a global cooperation...with more technological means."
French President Jacques Chirac told summit leaders it was essential to stimulate the economies of the Maghreb region. European governments agree the issue of migration cannot be solved without easing the poverty of many North Africans.
Chirac urged the leaders to solve their differences, a reference to the Western Sahara territorial dispute that has poisoned relations between Algeria and Morocco for more than 25 years.
In an apparent breakthrough, Bouteflika said that for the first time in 10 years, a summit of the five-nation Arab Maghreb Union -- countries represented at the Tunis summit -- would take place in Algeria later this month.
The meeting came only days after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's whirlwind tour of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia where he praised their counter-terrorism cooperation but also called for political reform and respect for human rights.
North Africa has become an important region for the West in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and subsequent attacks by Islamic militants.
Algeria has been a hotbed of Islamic militant violence for more than a decade. Morocco and Tunisia have suffered suicide bombing attacks by Islamic militants in the past two years.
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