US seeks way forward on migration at close of contested summit

The United States on Friday promised to do more to manage migration and hoped for growing consensus around the Americas at a summit in Los Angeles that was beset from the start by disputes.

The Summit of the Americas wound down with words of praise from the top diplomat of neighbouring Mexico, whose leader marked the week-long event with a boycott in protest over President Joe Biden's invitation list.

The countries will agree to reinforce systems to process claims for asylum on their soil and also to share costs with nations that have been on the frontlines of taking in migrants, officials said.

"Each one of our countries has been impacted by unprecedented migration, and I believe it's our shared responsibility to meet this challenge," Biden told the summit on Thursday.

Countries across the Americas will seek to boost "safe and orderly migration" and to "coordinate specific, concrete actions to secure our borders," Biden said.

Extreme poverty, rising violence and natural disasters worsened by climate change have triggered a sharp rise in Central Americans and Haitians seeking to enter the United States.

In an announcement timed for the summit, the State Department said the United States would resettle 20,000 verified refugees from the Americas over the next two years -- a three-fold increase but a far cry from the 100,000 Ukrainian refugees that Biden, mostly with Republican support, has pledged to take in.