John Reid has yet to decide on work rights for the next EU members

The Commons Home Affairs committee chairman told the BBC he thought a "breathing space" was needed "to absorb" recent immigrants first.

The UK was one of just three countries in 2004 to give all the new EU citizens - notably from Poland - work rights.

Ministers expected up to 13,000 a year, but about 600,000 have moved so far.

Romania and Bulgaria are due to join the EU next year and large numbers would be expected to travel to work in the UK if they are given the right to.

Wages

Mr Denham told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "I think it would be sensible to delay that step of allowing people to come here to work until we have had more time to absorb the much bigger inflow of people from Poland and the other eastern European states that's taken place over the last couple of years.

"In truth, given the numbers of people who have come, it's all gone much better than anybody could have expected.

"But there are a number of problems, a number of rubbing points, that we haven't managed to deal with yet and I think it would be better, before we compound those challenges, to give ourselves some breathing space and let the current migration settle down a bit."

Mr Denham said in his constituency in Southampton wages for construction workers had fallen "quite dramatically" because of new workers.

Mr Denham defended the government's open-door policy for the Polish and other new EU citizens in 2004.

"We took the decision for very good reasons based on estimates of rather smaller numbers of people coming," he told the BBC.

"We've had far more people come, it's raising some questions that we didn't think we would have to face.

"And just the sensible thing to do is to respond to that now by saying we need a bit of a breathing space before we can take the next step and consider allowing a whole new group of people, who may come in greater numbers, to come into the country to take jobs."

Hard working

Last week, Home Secretary John Reid called for a mature debate on immigration.

The skills migrants contributed had to be weighed against the burden placed on schools and hospitals, he told the BBC.

Mr Reid stopped short of saying whether similar rights to settle and work would be granted to would-be migrants from Romania and Bulgaria when they join the EU next year.

Reports have suggested that he is wary of allowing free access to the UK job market to workers from these two states.

Dorian Prisacaru, charge d'affaire at the Romanian Embassy in London, told the World at One that he expected his country to be treated fairly.