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SEVILLE, Spain, Sunday (Reuters)

European Union leaders have launched a crackdown on illegal immigration to reassure voters anxious at an influx of Third World migrants. But at a two-day summit in the Spanish city of Seville, overshadowed by a wave of five Basque separatist bombs elsewhere in Spain, the 15 leaders postponed key decisions on reforming their bloc and paying for its eastward enlargement.

Shocked into action by gains for anti-immigration populists in recent elections, the leaders approved action plans to boost border controls, work towards a common asylum policy and press third countries to cooperate in controlling migrant flows. "We have reached a very balanced solution to limit and manage immigration while taking human lives into account," German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said.

He and British Prime Minister Tony Blair voiced some frustration that opposition spearheaded by France had prevented the EU from threatening sanctions against states that did not fight people smugglers or take back rejected immigrants. But French President Jacques Chirac said brandishing the sword of sanctions would not solve the problem but would make the EU look uncaring by punishing the poorest.

Schroeder said the EU's long-term aim to stem an annual influx of an estimated half a million illegal immigrants was a common border guard corps, "but this remains a long way off".

However, the first joint border operations will start by the end of this year and the leaders agreed to cooperate much more closely on training, equipping and setting common standards for their national border guards.

Several thousand anti-globalisation demonstrators marched through central Seville after the summit ended on Saturday, banging drums and blowing whistles, but there was no repetition of the violence that marred similar demonstrations after a March EU summit in Barcelona.

Their three-hour march, organized by a coalition of 70-odd groups called the Seville Social Forum, set off from Santa Justa railway station at 8:00 pm, heading to the Barqueta bridge over the city's Guadalquivir river.

It was to be followed by a "concert against globalization" into the early hours of Sunday morning.

Organizers expected at least 100,000 to participate in the march, with riot police lining the entire route. On the Spanish-Portuguese border, some 500 Portuguese activists were barred by police from entering Spain by bus, and some alleged that they were struck with batons, news media in Lisbon reported. "They can't say we are European citizens if, when we want to affirm our rights as citizens, they place ... police with guns in our path," said Francisco Louca, a far-left Portuguese legislator who was part of the group.

Security had been tight in the Andalusian capital all week, with nearly 10,000 police officers - many from other parts of Spain - guarding the leaders of the 15 EU member states and 13 enlargement candidate countries.

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