Frontex deputy executive director Gil Arias Fernandez, speaking in Rome on Thursday, also singled out what he said was lack of co-operation by Libya in attempts by the EU to curb illegal immigration across the Mediterranean Sea.

Rebels have pulled out of a border town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that they captured last week but remain close by as peacekeepers reinforce their presence in the region, the UN said Monday.

Forces loyal to Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda withdrew Sunday from Ishasa, located some 130 kilometres (81 miles) from Goma, the capital of eastern Nord-Kivu province, according to Jean-Paul Dietrich, spokesman for the UN's peacekeeping mission MONUC.

The United States has told Pakistan it expects nothing short of complete cooperation in investigations into the terrorist rampage in nuclear rival India, and Pakistan's response will be a test of the will of the new civilian government, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday.

"What we are emphasizing to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads," Rice said. "I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that's what we expect."