Brussels, 08/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Nicolas Sarkozy, France's minister of the interior and presidential candidate, has pledged to give his full support to the European agency for the management of operational cooperation at the external borders of the EU member states, Frontex. The French government will place “operational maritime and air means at Frontex' disposal”, Sarkozy said on 5 March, according to AFP reports. France “plans to make an operational contribution to come to grips with the challenge of migrants likely to land on the Mediterranean coast”, he wrote in a letter addressed to European Commission Vice-President Franco Frattini last Friday. Every means (the Navy, customs offices, police and gendarmerie) will be brought into operation on 20 March during a European exercise (France, Spain, Greece and Italy) to combat illegal immigration by sea, held off the coast of Marseilles. Finally, Sarkozy called for “a real Mediterranean dialogue on migration”. Nineteen member states had undertaken mid-February to provide Frontex with equipment to allow it to conduct patrols off the coasts of the EU to prevent the huge inflow of illegal migrants to the Union (EUROPE 9367). (bc)