LA BAULE, France, October 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Interior Ministers from the European Union's five heavyweight countries announced Monday, October 20, they would boost police cooperation and scrutiny of foreigners to crack down on illegal immigration.

The ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain said after two days of talks in this western French town that the measures were among a raft of joint initiatives that would also target international terrorism, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Our views are virtually perfectly aligned," French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who hosted the meeting, told a press conference alongside his four E.U. counterparts.

Their agreements included: reforming the collective E.U. police agency Europol to make it more effective; cracking down on gangs smuggling illegal immigrants from China, eastern Europe and Africa into the European Union; and putting microchips on visas for the E.U.'s Schengen area that would include the bearer's fingerprints and face-scan in digital form.

Sarkozy, Britain's David Blunkett, Germany's Otto Schily, Italy's Giuseppe Pisanu and Spain's Angel Acebes all stressed that their pool of bilateral accords on the matters did not supplant usual E.U. decision-making involving all 15 members.

But they also made clear that, as their countries collectively represented 80 percent of the European Union's population of 377 million, the agreements should eventually be adopted E.U.-wide.

Sarkozy rejected a suggestion that the tougher measures were turning the E.U. into "Fortress Europe", saying the five countries were intent only on joining forces to tackle criminals increasingly working on an international scale.

"The organised crime rings which before were, for example, dealing in drugs, are now involved in illegal immigration, the exploitation of human misery.

"And we also know that there is a link between terrorist networks and criminal activities because the terrorists need money," he said.

The ministers were unanimous in insisting that the Union's external borders be secure by not offering any exceptional entry rights to populations living just on the other side of the frontiers.

"We don't want any weakening (of the borders). None at all," Sarkozy said.

Illegal immigration across the Mediterranean, particularly into Italy and Spain, got special mention.

The ministers said they would start a "three plus three" cooperation deal that would see France, Italy and Spain sponsoring efforts in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to stem the tide of clandestine immigrants.

Pisanu said stepped-up checks of ships would also take place to clamp down on the night crossings favored by the smugglers.

"This year, the Mediterranean will have seen the death of hundreds of migrants, and many more have died trying to cross the Saharan desert. This is a tragedy weighing on the E.U. conscience," he said.