By Paul Anderson BBC correspondent in Seville

Apologies for the history lesson here. But in the context of the European Union's summit in Seville, it is relevant.

Stopping immigration was also a key issue in Seville 800 years ago

In 1220, the North African Moors who then controlled Seville built gigantic towers on either side of the Guadalquivir river which flows through the city.

Across it they stretched not a bridge but a chain.

Teams of pullers were assembled to tug it out of the water to stop the ships of any invading Christians getting to the Andalucian capital.

Eight hundred years later, Spain's Christian rulers are applying themselves with the same vigour and ingenuity to the same sort of task.

How to stop the armadas of little boats which set sail from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria from landing on Spanish soil?

Surfeit of migrants

It is not that they do not need the cheap, do-anything labour which immigrants offer.

They do. Just not so many.

Last year 20,000 illegal immigrants were turned back from Spain. Many more probably made it through.

Small wonder Spain joined forces with Britain and Italy at the Seville summit to promote a tough line on the countries whose officials stand by and do nothing about the problem.

France clashed with Spain over taking a tough line on immigration

Officials from Britain protest there was never any talk of sanctions or punishment of these countries, struggling as they are to develop their economies.

It was more, they said, about encouraging them to honour their international obligations, not about wielding a big stick.

But ministers from France and Sweden, who engaged in a two-hour head-to-head clash with their colleagues from London, Rome and Madrid, thought otherwise.

They were fighting on the side of the carrot and they won by simply refusing to budge.

The final declarations they thrashed out spoke of joint border operations by the end of this year (but no common border police force) and of speeding up the creation of a common policy on asylum (by the end of this year and the next).

Contention amid blandness

On the task of dealing with developing countries which assist or at least fail to stop illegal immigration, the EU decided "to actively seek their co-operation".

The EU can take unspecified measures, but not ones which jeopardise development aid. No talks of sanctions there.

The British put a positive spin on this, the most contentious issue of an otherwise bland summit.

They said it gave impetus to a process which was going nowhere fast.

It also allowed Europe's mainstream centre-right and centre-left politicians to steal the rug from under the feet of Europe's expanding far-right, by hijacking the immigration question.

Hope over expectation: Would-be migrants staged a hunger strike for their cause

Meanwhile, just down the road but a million miles from the air-conditioned summit centre, a bizarre scene was playing out in a sweltering disused school hall.

A group of illegal immigrants from Morocco was staging a 48-hour hunger strike inside to protest at the Spanish authorities' failure to issue them with official papers.

The gesture was a triumph of hope over expectation.

What earthly reason would the Spanish have for issuing them with papers, least of all with western Europe's politicians in full tilt against the scourge of illegal immigration?

But there they were, demanding a name and number to help them get work and a home.

Said one hapless protester: "We're sleeping under plastic sheets. Imagine, in this heat."

It was 40 degrees Centigrade.

"My message to Europe's leaders is to try to understand what life is like for us immigrants. Just that."

The response of the Spanish Minister for Europe, Ramon de Miguel: "These people must go home."