(MADRID) - France and Spain have reached agreement on the text of a proposed Europe-wide immigration pact at a ministerial level meeting in Madrid, French Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux said Thursday.

"We have composed a common text which will be submitted to the those responsible in other countries," he told AFP after holding talks with his Spanish counterpart Celestino Crobach and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.

Hortefeux did not give details of the proposed text of the "European Pact on immigration and asylum" which France hopes to approve at a European Union summit set for October 15 during its six-month presidency of the EU.

The proposed text will likely be presented at a meeting of interior and justice ministers on Monday in the French Riviera resort of Cannes.

France has made harmonising EU immigration policy a priority of its EU presidency which started on Tuesday.

EU states have already beefed up cooperation against illegal migration, creating a common border agency, and last month they hardened their immigration policy by agreeing that illegal migrants could be held for up to 18 months.

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