CANNES, FRANCE - EUROPEAN Union ministers backed French proposals for a common policy to stem illegal immigration and said they expected it to be adopted in October, despite accusations of xenophobia from outside the bloc.

Spain said it was happy with changes to the 'European Pact on Immigration and Asylum' discussed by interior ministers from the 27 EU states in Cannes on Monday, having previously expressed concern about proposals to ban mass legalisations of migrants.

France has made harmonising the bloc's immigration policy a priority of its six-month EU presidency that began this month.

Its Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux told a news conference the pact received unanimous backing and he expected it to be adopted by EU leaders in mid-October after minor drafting changes.

Under its plan, EU states would pledge to boost the fight against illegal migration and expel more illegal migrants, while promoting legal migration and a common asylum policy by 2010.

Mr Hortefeux called it an 'historic afternoon' and said the pact would offer a 'coherent, balanced and fair immigration policy'.

'European will not be a fortress, neither will it be a sieve letting through everything ... it will be able to organise its legal immigration and put a halt to illegal immigration.'

Spain had insisted its 2005 'regularisation' of 700,000 illegal immigrants could not be ruled against the law.

A version of the French plan after Mr Hortefeux visited Madrid last week dropped a call for states to avoid mass legalisations but said legalisation should be on a 'case-by-case' basis.

Sweden still wants the text broadened to encourage legal migration to fill whatever skill shortages exist, rather than emphasising 'highly qualified' workers.

Workers

'We do not only need highly skilled, but also construction workers and others,' its State Secretary for Justice Gustaf Lind said, while adding that Stockholm nevertheless welcomed the pact and expected to see it adopted with minor changes.

Spain has been concerned about the angry reaction of South American countries, whose leaders have slammed new EU rules that allow authorities to detain illegal immigrants for up to 18 months and ban them from re-entry for up to five years.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said it recalled 'times of xenophobia' while Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Europe had 'legalised barbarity'. He threatened to stop selling oil to European states if they apply the new law and to cancel investments in Venezuela by European countries.

EU officials argue the bloc needs a more coherent policy on illegal immigration to convince voters to accept legal migrants needed to make up for the bloc's aging population.

Mr Hortefeux has said concerns about immigration were one reason Irish voters rejected the EU reform treaty last month.

Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said in Cannes that Ireland was 'favourably disposed' to the French proposals.

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble backed the plan, adding: 'I don't see a wall around Europe. We are fighting illegal immigration and we manage legal immigration.'

EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said it was necessary to bring order to migration: 'It is necessary to have a Europe that is of course open, but a Europe with rules of the game, a Europe which remains a land of asylum, but which does that in a harmonised manner, generous, but also well organised.'

The European Commission estimates there are up to 8 million illegal migrants in the bloc. More than 200,000 were arrested in the first half of 2007, and fewer than 90,000 were expelled. -- REUTERS