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EU split over future asylum policy

The European Union is divided over how far to go in building a common asylum system and whether to set up a common border guard to protect the bloc's vast external frontiers, an idea opposed by Home Secretary David Blunkett.

While France said it supported the idea of EU states jointly patrolling the bloc's external borders, Blunkett said he had made it clear to current EU president, the Netherlands, that Britain opposed such plans.

"There won't be a centrally run border control agency. There will be a set of expertise developed for the whole of the European Union," he told reporters yesterday. "That is the way in which we will go."

Blunkett said Britain had already helped Mediterranean countries such as Italy and Greece patrol their sea borders and London had also offered its help to the EU's new member states in eastern Europe, which border Russia and Ukraine.

Paris and London also disagreed over how fast the EU should progress towards a common asylum system. French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin said France wanted the EU to have harmonised rules by 2010.

"There is a need to move to a common European system of asylum by 2010," he told reporters. "That should be time enough to get agreement."

EU justice and interior ministers meet on Monday and Tuesday to flesh out the 25-nation bloc's future policy on asylum, immigration and security policy before a November summit where EU leaders are expected to endorse the strategy.

But the EU was split in two groups -- each led by big member states France and Britain -- which disagreed over how far to take harmonisation of national asylum rules and proposals for the bloc to have joint border controls, diplomats said.

Blunkett said the EU should focus on practical work instead of harmonising national rules and that most EU governments shared London's reluctance to give up the right to decide their own policy in the sensitive area.

He said the EU should focus on agreements with non-EU states on returning unwanted migrants and stopping human trafficking.

"People are very mindful that they don't want to find themselves signed up to something that would disadvantage them."

Diplomats said the main focus of the EU's future policy on asylum would be on how to help states in Africa and Asia provide protection for refugees from their region and stem the flow of illegal migration to Europe.

The proposals have worried refugee rights groups and the United Nations which fear the EU is trying to shy away from its responsibility to take in asylum seekers.

But Sweden's Immigration Minister Barbro Holmberg said the proposals would mean more aid to poor developing countries.

The EU ministers will also discuss better exchange of information to fight terrorism and the idea of a European public prosecutor during their two-day meeting in Luxembourg.

A final draft of the EU's strategy will be presented to EU leaders at a November summit. It will then be transformed into a detailed action plan with concrete proposals from the European Commission next year.

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