European Union leaders agreed this afternoon to step up cooperation to tighten immigration, but put on a backburner an idea to punish poor nations that are lax in stopping their nationals from seeking illegal work in Europe.
The EU leaders pledged to create order in the chaos of conflicting national immigration and asylum laws to have equal treatment of legal and illegal immigrants as well as asylum seekers.
Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, briefing reporters on the first day of a two-day EU summit, said the leaders "agreed Europe needs immigrants (but) to avoid illegal immigration. This is the main political message."
The leaders drafted a long to-do list of bringing national immigration and asylum laws into line with one another and to enlist poor countries in the fight against illegal immigration through "cooperation and partnership" agreements.
If that does not work, Mr Pique said, "the EU reserves the right whether or not there should be consequences" for those countries.
The summit opened amid heavy security.
Spanish army and air force units were on high alert and police isolated the summit site, a sprawling convention complex in this southern Spanish city.
Hours before the summit began, the Basque separatist group ETA was blamed for a car bomb in the Mediterranean resort of Fuengerola, 100 miles from Seville. A second car bomb, also believed to be ETA's work, went off later in the nearby resort of Marbella.
The first blast, near a hotel, injured four Britons, a Spanish woman and a Moroccan. No one was injured in the second bombing.
The drive to cut the flow of illegals from poorer countries followed recent successes of far-right and populist parties across Europe whose anti-immigrant platforms struck a chord in voters.
"Immigration-related issues have increasingly become, in the eyes of the majority of our citizens, associated with questions of security, questions which our citizens expect Europe to answer," said summit host, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
Around 500,000 illegal immigrants enter the EU annually, in addition to almost 400,000 asylum seekers.
A recent EU survey found 14 per cent of Europeans said they do not want more immigrants, while 25 per cent were ambivalent on the issue.
Btitish Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair has suggested that aid be cut to countries that do not take illegal immigrants back or are lax in preventing their nationals from heading for Europe without proper papers. Spain and Italy had also backed the idea.
However, in a display of internal rift as the summit opened, Britain's International Development Secretary Clare Short warned any attempt to cut aid to Third World countries for that reason was "morally repugnant."
AP