(PARIS) - France urged EU governments on Monday to agree on a common policy for asylum seekers, saying the 27-nation bloc must offer stronger protection for political refugees.

French Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux, whose country holds the EU presidency, opened the two-day ministerial meeting in Paris called "building a Europe of asylum."

Hortefeux said he hoped that a common EU asylum policy could be in place by 2010, or at the latest 2012.

"It is the duty of the EU ... to offer better protection to political refugees," Hortefeux said.

"Asylum cannot and will never be a modifying variable in immigration policy."

Talks are to focus on mecanisms for helping EU asylum-seekers' frontline states and also non-EU countries such as Pakistan and Syria that have welcomed large numbers of refugees.

Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said his country "as an outpost of the Mediterranean" was under "extraordinary pressure" to take in more asylum seekers that a common European policy could help ease.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told ministers he supported efforts to build a common asylum policy for Europe "but not at any cost."

Guterres said fortress Europe had become a reality for so many refugees and that access as well as minimum standards for asylum-seekers must be ensured.

"There are more and more barriers to entry to Europe," he told ministers.

"This creates a situation in which many people in search of protection have no choice but to put themselves in the hands of people-smugglers and traffickers and to cross borders in an irregular manner."

The number of asylum seekers in the EU has been decreasing over recent years, totalling 220,000 in 2007.

The UNHCR chief said only seven of the 27 EU states had refugee resettlement programmes, to welcome Iraqi nationals who have been forced to flee their homes, for example.

Last year, the EU welcomed 4,000 refugees, or only five percent of the total number of people identified by the UN agency as having lost their homes.

By comparison, the United States welcomed 48,000 refugees while 11,000 were resettled in Canada.

Conference "Building a Europe of Asylum"

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