Pledging to curb immigration to the UK, Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday announced that doors will be shut to highly skilled non-EU doctors and engineers, and said his government would consider denying visa to students seeking entry to short-term programmes.

In measures that may have an adverse impact on highly skilled Indians, Brown said immigration rules would be tightened to curb the entry of thousands of foreign professionals, including doctors and engineers, as the list of empty jobs for migrants to take up is slashed.

Signalling a major change in Labour government's policy on the issue, Brown also announced a review of the student visa system that could see only those signing up to degree and postgraduate courses allowed in.

In his address in west London today, the embattled Prime Minister said he had always believed in "managed" migration and not some kind of open door approach.

"I have never agreed with the lazy elitism that dismisses immigration as an issue, or portrays anyone who has concerns about immigration as a racist," he said.

Thousands of posts will be axed from the Government's shortage occupation list, that foreign workers can come here to fill because of a lack of Britons with the right skills.

Some 30,000 posts had already been removed and hospital consultants, civil engineers, aircraft engineers and ship's officers would all now go, Brown said.