French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has announced measures to curb illegal immigration to France by Romanian gypsies, or Roma.

Speaking after a meeting in Paris with his Romanian counterpart, Ioan Rus, Mr Sarkozy said he was sending to Bucharest a police attache and experts in the fight against people trafficking.

Mr Rus said the measures would help ensure that illegal activities by a few hundred people would not discredit 20 million Romanians.

The meeting came after mounting concern in both countries over the presence in France of groups of disabled, mainly gypsy beggars from Romania.

The beggars, some of them children, are believed to be exploited by organised gangs.

Correspondents say unemployment and illiteracy rates among Romanian gypsies are many times higher than the national average.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service