The two-day meeting, which was held in Libya's capital Tripoli, agreed to match development goals with security measures in addressing illegal immigration.

"Illegal or irregular immigration cannot be addressed solely from a security perspective," the statement said, adding that the problem should be solved through joint action under "genuine partnership" between European and African countries.

The African emigrants' influx into Europe was rooted in poverty, underdevelopment, war chaos, unfair conditions in world trade and the side effect of the economic globalization, it noted.

European and African countries should cooperate to root out illegal migration through encouraging development, it said, adding that the problem could not be tackled solely by compulsory measures.

The participants agreed to strengthen coordination and cooperation between the origin, transfer and destination countries in the migration chain.

European representatives expressed the willingness to provide economic aid to African countries to help them develop economy and seek more job opportunities.

Gilbert Ondongo, minister of labor, employment and social security of the Republic of Congo, said African countries could see the willingness of the European countries to continue to conduct dialogue on migration and development, and hoped to see concrete measures in implementing the statement.

African countries were expecting that the statement could be put into practice, he added.

Finnish Foreign Minister and current Chairman of the European Union Erkki Tuomioja said that Europe would strengthen cooperation with Africa to find out an efficient way of tackling the issue of migration.