(BRUSSELS) - European Union leaders will endorse Thursday sweeping new guidelines to manage immigration with the focus on selecting migrants for their labour skills, an approach criticised by rights defenders.

At a summit in Brussels, the leaders will rubber stamp the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum, which has also angered Latin American nations, laying the foundations for EU migration policy for years to come.

The pact -- a document of political intent but not binding laws -- sets out principles for managing migration, fighting illegal immigration and forming partnerships with countries people leave or travel through to get to Europe.

It also seeks to make border controls more effective while building better asylum policy, with refugees -- 220,000 people made applications last year -- increasingly obliged to apply for asylum status from outside the bloc.

But the EU's determination to open the door almost exclusively to those with the talents most sought after by their hosts is stark.

"The European Union ... does not have the resources to decently receive all the migrants hoping to find a better life here," reads the preamble to a recent draft of the text, drawn up by France, holder of the EU presidency.

Immigration will be based on criteria like "Europe's reception capacity in terms of its labour market," with the emphasis on controlling would-be immigrants rather than encouraging people to come.

A new "Blue Card" scheme is also under discussion to better attract highly skilled workers, as the EU struggles to compete with the United States in the chase for foreign labour.

The pact also insists that nations take the "interests" of their neighbours into account when formulating immigration, integration and asylum policies -- shorthand for avoiding the mass handout of residency permits.

Italy and Spain have angered some of their partners by giving papers to some 700,000 people in recent years.

"We need an immigration policy for Europe -- one decided on the basis of proper debate that ... is not hijacked by a fixation on illegal immigration," warned Greens leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit.

"Migrants have made an enormous contribution to Europe, yet we have built a house and forgotten the doors," he said.

Pressure has also been ratcheted up on the countries which immigrants are fleeing from and those they travel through -- many of them near the sea -- to get to their EU El Dorado.

Mauritania is a particular point of focus, rights groups say, with thousands of people arrested there in the last two years on suspicion alone of planning to migrate to Europe.

"EU states are using countries such as Mauritania to manage the flow of migrants who attempt to reach Europe. It is as if Mauritania has become Europe's 'policeman,'" Amnesty International said.

Those who do get through in future will face an even tougher time on the EU's external borders, with the pact focused on better security control and new technologies, high-tech documents, and greater powers for border authorities.

Countries will also beef up cooperation to efficiently expel those rejected.

Tough new EU laws which allow the jailing of illegal immigrants for up to 18 months before deportation triggered outrage across Latin America in June, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatening to cut off oil exports to Europe.

Some six million illegal immigrants are thought to be in the 27 EU nations.

European Council

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.