CANNES (AP) -- European Union nations gave their backing Monday to a French-drafted pact calling for tightening immigration and asylum rules across the 27-nation bloc.

Presented by French Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux, the plan would commit EU nations to coordinating policies and setting common standards for the treatment of migrants by 2012.
""The pact represents progress,"" Hortefeux said, adding that it would officially be signed by the bloc's national leaders in October.
Latin American nations have criticized Europe for pursuing policies that they say are unfairly targeting and expelling thousands of migrants who come seeking better economic opportunities.
The human rights group Amnesty International and the UN refugee agency told France before the EU meeting that the needs and rights of asylum seekers should be respected.
""This does not transform Europe into a fortress,"" German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said. ""But we have to create conditions that allow us to integrate those here for a long period.""
About 220,000 people applied for asylum in the EU last year — a 12 percent increase from 2006, officials say. The vast majority of applicants came from Africa, former Soviet countries and the Balkans. Tens of thousands more try each year to sneak into the bloc as economic migrants.
Highlighting the problem, Spanish rescue teams searched Monday for 14 Africans missing after a boat carrying migrants capsized in rough seas off Spain's coast. Hundreds die every year in dangerous sea voyages to Spain and other southern EU states, while many more are caught and sent back.