Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday pledged to curb the entry of doctors and other professionals from outside Europe into the UK in a new crackdown on immigration, a move likely to adversely impact thousands of Indians.

Signalling a major shift in the Labour government's immigration policy, the Prime Minister vowed to "stem rising tide of migration". He said his government plans to restrict the points based system for determining which migrants can work in Britain.

"One of the reasons that immigration will fall is the tightening of the new points system and it will continue to tighten over the next few months," Brown told the 'Daily Mail' in an interview ahead of a major speech on immigration on Thursday.

Even as insisting that immigration had been a source of "economic, social and cultural strength" for Britain, Brown said the points-based system, introduced last year to control the entry of non-EU citizens to the UK by grading incomers on the skills they can offer the country, would be further toughened up.

In a major policy change, Brown is expected to announce that the door is being closed to non-EU hospital consultants, civil engineers, aircraft engineers and ship's officers, the report said.

"I know people worry about whether immigration undermines their wages and the job prospects of their children and they also worry about whether they will get a decent home for their families," he underlined.

Brown pledged to tighten the new points-based entry system before the next general election in June next year as large-scale immigration had put key public services in the country under severe strain and may be turned into a key electoral issue by the right wing anti-immigrant parties.

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