European and north African countries bordering the Mediterranean will be asked to contribute ships and equipment to the new body, to be known as the European maritime border guard corps.

Frattini was putting the proposal to EU and Mediterranean foreign ministers at a summit in Barcelona this weekend. If his plan is approved by the EU’s 25 governments, the force could swing into action as early as next spring.

About 100,000 people a year are thought to enter the EU illegally across the Mediterranean, a fifth of the total number of illegal immigrants. Many drown. Although there are no precise figures, welfare groups have documented 5,000 such deaths in the past 10 years.

The European commission has emphasised that the force will answer to national authorities and will not be under the direct control of Brussels. But officials say that EU flags could be worn on uniforms to make the operation distinctive.

In an interview last week Frattini said one of his main objectives was to create a network of satellite systems that could detect the immigrants’ boats leaving African ports.

The EU’s new border control agency in Warsaw, known as Frontex, will act as a control centre to monitor satellite images and alert coastguards. “The main task will be to prevent and to have early information about traffickers starting from southern ports,” Frattini said.

Rescuing ships in distress would also be a priority, he added. This year Spanish lifeboats alone have rescued 5,700 migrants. “Practically every day people die in the Mediterranean,” said Frattini. “The taskforce will be based on a particular goal — to avoid the loss of life, rescue people, prevent traffickers and accompany people entering Europe illegally in order to avoid shipwrecks.”

Under the proposal, immigrants who are picked up will be taken to European ports and put through a fast-track asylum procedure. Those rejected will be sent back.

France, Italy, Spain, Malta and Greece will be asked to take part, but other EU countries will be encouraged to help to tackle what is seen as a broader European problem. Britain has indicated that it may make a contribution if the final proposal is “sensible”.

From 2007 EU countries will be able to draw on a £70m annual fund to help pay for repatriating illegal immigrants. The commission has also put aside money to help north African countries, including Libya, to deal with asylum seekers and improve living conditions in temporary camps.

Frattini has said that he sees the maritime force as a first step towards creating a European border guard corps to control the EU’s land borders.

Critics have questioned whether his Mediterranean scheme would be capable of spotting genuine refugees. “It is a very thorny question of how to strike the balance between stopping people from drowning and on the other hand ensuring they never reach their destination,” said Dick Oosting, the EU director of Amnesty International.

Frattini’s proposal forms part of a larger plan by the European commission to control immigration by attracting skilled people while keeping illegal migrants at bay.

Next month he will reveal a plan to create an EU work permit similar to the green card in America. It would aim to fast-track skilled workers to plug gaps in the European labour market caused by an ageing population. The EU is expected to lose 20m workers by 2020 as people retire.

Engineers, researchers, healthcare and IT workers from India and Africa would be targeted, but unskilled agricultural and construction workers would also be included.

Critics of the green card plan have questioned the need to bring in more workers when about 20m people in the EU are already without work.

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