PARIS, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy andItalian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called on Friday for a common curb on illegal immigration in a joint letter to the European Council and European Commission.

    France and Italy addressed the letter to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.

    They urged the European Union members to commonly take strict border policy to curb illegal migrations, especially against the flow coming across the Mediterranean. "Irregulated migration continues to present a considerable challenge for the EU," the two leaders said in the letter.

    "The next European Council can not be contented with the current state" of migration restraint, the letter said.

    Immigration problems are expected to be discussed at the EU summit scheduled in Brussels on Oct. 29-30.

    This week, the French government deported three Afghan men by a joint charter plane with Britain for the first time, which has raised fierce criticism from human rights groups and opposition parties.

    French Immigration Minister Eric Besson defended the act by saying that fleeing from a war zone doesn't give the person right to stay in France.

    A massive dismantling of "the Jungle" of Calais last month dispersed hundreds of illegal migrants from their camp of makeshift tents, while over 200 adults were arrested by police.