Interior ministers from five EU member states -- France, Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy -- held a special meeting in Paris on Thursday on tightening border controls.

At a press conference held after the meeting, French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin said that the five countries planned to set up a "European exterior border intervention police force."

Villepin said that the ministers agreed that it was necessary to set up a rapid response force to deal with the immigration issues, which is expected to be converted into a European border intervention police force soon.

He added that the five countries hope that the newly founded "EU exterior border management commission" could take control of such a force.

The interior ministers from the other four countries reaffirmed that the establishment of an exterior border intervention police force will contribute to the border security of the European countries and that the EU countries should step up cooperation especially on airport controls.

As to the issue of internal border between EU member countries, the ministers agreed that the management measures for Europe's Schengen zone, which would soon be launched, would standardize the border management of various member countries.
 
The ministers also said that the member countries would cooperate in establishing a standardized visa system.

The Schengen zone refers to the passport-free area where standard border controls are nonexistent. The zone comprises Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

The special meeting of the five ministers came a day after Paris announced plans to add 600 agents to its border patrols, part of a new get-tough plan to fight illegal immigration in France.
 
At present, all these five countries are facing a serious immigration problem. France says it has between 200,000 and 400,000 illegal immigrants on its soil.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2005)