EU, Africa, to hold migration meeting in November

ADDIS ABABA, Oct 3 (Reuters) The European Union's top migration official called for action to curb illegal migrants at an EU-African Union ministerial meeting he said would be held in Libya at the end of next month.

Rising flows of illegal African migrants reaching Spain's Canary Islands, Malta, and Italy's Lampedusa on rickety boats this year have prompted European and African ministers to vow to cooperate on this sensitive issue.

Franco Frattini, EU commissioner for migration, yesterday suggested ministers work on a joint database listing which of the EU's 25 countries needed workers in specific fields such as agriculture or construction, saying it could be a useful tool to help manage migration.

''We need people to pick tomatoes or for olive oil, in Spain, Portugal, Italy, in the south of France. So why not prepare for it instead of tolerating illegal immigration?'' Frattini said on the margins of a meeting of the African Union Commission and the European Commission in Ethiopia.

''At the end (of a short stay in Europe), people can go home and with the salary they can help their family live for a whole year,'' he said.

At a first meeting of foreign ministers in Morocco in July, which focused mainly on migration from west Africa to Spain, Libya had offered to hold a larger-scale conference involving all states of the EU and the 53-nation African Union.

But officials had doubted it would take place this year, saying there was not enough time to prepare.

Frattini said the Tripoli meeting would probably be attended by interior ministers and European affairs ministers.

Reuters SBA VP0530