France will submit a draft law to parliament for approval in a bid to ensure better control of immigration and encourage immigrants to integrate into the French society, the French government announced on Wednesday.

Under the new law, immigrants living in France must prove their economic strength if they want to reunite with their family in France, the French government said in a statement released after Wednesday's cabinet meeting.

The immigrants who came to France by the way of "family reunion" must pass the language test as well as the test of "social value of French for immigrants" before receiving long-term residency visa.

France will convene an EU-Africa immigration conference next year when it assumes the rotating presidency of the European Union, said Brice Hortefeux, French minister for immigration, integration, national identity and co-development, in an interview published in the French newspaper, Le Monde Wednesday.

France hoped that the European nations could work out a pact to curb mass amnesty for illegal immigrants, he said.

He also suggested that the EU should set a limit for the total number of immigrants and encourage economic and technical immigration while fighting illegal immigration.

(Xinhua News Agency July 5, 2007)