New York, June 7 (IANS) UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has proposed setting up a standing forum that could be used by governments to explore and compare policy approaches on the developmental impact of international migration.

"Such a government-led consultative forum on migration and development would not produce negotiated outcomes or recommendations," Annan stressed in a report presented to the UN General Assembly Tuesday.

"Rather, it would make new policy ideas more widely known, add value to existing regional consultations, and encourage an integrated approach to migration and development at both the national and international levels."

The UN General Assembly takes up the migration issue in September. Long seen as too hot for a global institution to handle, the issue of international migration has recently been moving up the UN agenda.

Describing his report as an early roadmap for this new era of mobility, Annan said: "The advantages that migration brings are not as well understood as they should be."

The report finds that migration has become a major feature of international life. It can benefit both sending and receiving countries at once.

Significantly, many countries once known for emigration, like Ireland, South Korea and Spain, now boast of thriving economies and host large numbers of immigrants.

People living outside their home countries numbered 191 million in 2005 - 115 million in developed countries and 75 million in the developing world.

One third of all current immigrants in the world have moved from one developing country to another, while about the same number have moved from the developing world to the developed.

In other words, South-South migration is roughly as common as South-North. But migration to countries designated as high-income, a category which includes some developing countries such as South Korea, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, has grown much faster than to the rest of the world.

"It is for governments to decide whether more or less migration is desirable," the secretary-general said in his introduction to the report. "Our focus in the international community should be on the quality and safety of the migration experience and on what can be done to maximize its development benefits."

Migrants not only take on necessary jobs, seen as less desirable by the established residents of host countries, but also stimulate demand and improve overall economic performance overall, said the report.

It further points out that migrants also help to shore up pension systems in countries with aging populations.

For their part, developing countries benefit from an estimated $167 billion a year sent home by migrant workers.

The exodus of talent from poor countries to more prosperous ones often poses a severe development loss. But in many countries this is, at least partially, compensated by migrants' later return to or investment in, their home countries, where profitable new businesses are established, the report stated.

Last year, the independent Global Commission on International Migration presented a report and recommendations to the UN Secretary-General.

In 2005, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) adopted a non-binding Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration.

Peter Sutherland, a special representative of the UN secretary-general, is now engaged in preliminary talks with governments, leading up to a "high-level dialogue" to be held by the General Assembly Sep 14-15.