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WASHINGTON (AFP) - A landmark congressional compromise with the White House on the thorny immigration issue did not suit all lawmakers Friday as some Republicans called it amnesty and some Democrats argued it did not go far enough.

"The agreement as it stands is hopeless. It is a framework that still has to be fleshed out," said Vanessa Cardenas of the Center for American Progress.

US lawmakers struck a deal with the White House Thursday on sweeping immigration reform that could allow 12 million illegal immigrants to legalize their status.

The pact, announced by a group of Democratic and Republican senators, would provide a path to permanent residency and citizenship for the vast majority of illegal workers, establish a merit-based points system for future immigrants, and set up a low-wage temporary worker program.

It also would also provide 18,000 more Border Patrol agents, and scores of radar and camera towers on the US border with Mexico.

The deal could hand President George W. Bush one of the few successes in Congress of his second term in office; in the Senate Monday, 60 of 100 members were expected to give a procedural green light for the bill to be debated.

"I look forward to signing this legislation as soon as I can," Bush said on Friday.

Debate will get under way, a legislative source said, but stressed that was no guarantee about terms set out in the deal.

Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has said he would like to improve the deal with amendments, gave colleagues until next weekend to approve a reform plan apparently in a bid to keep the immigration issue from becoming a focus of campaigning ahead of next year's presidential vote.

Conservative Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney jumped on the issue, saying he was strongly opposed to the deal

Democrat Hillary Clinton said only that she would analyze the deal carefully -- not if she supported it.

With critics on both sides, Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy and Republican counterpart Jon Kyl face an uphill battle for their bill despite being backed by Bush.

"I voted for amnesty in 1986 and learned that illegality only promotes illegality. So I won't repeat the mistake," said Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, referring to a prior effort to allow people in the United States illegally to normalize their status.

Democrat Bob Menendez did not sign on either, despite the fact he was one of his party's lead negotiators on the case in recent weeks.

"I could not sign on to the agreement announced in principle because it tears families apart, says to many that they are only good enough to work here, but not good enough to stay," said Menendez.

Some Democrats have asked for reforms that would allow separated family members to be reunited, and a way for future participants in a temporary workers' program to seek permanent residency, ideas not in the current plan.

Lawmakers and the White House will have to narrow the divide over the details in a few months if they hope to give Bush a deal he can sign before year's end.

The Senate's final version of the deal, once approved, must be debated in the House of Representatives, where the Democrats hold sway.

If it is revised a committee must iron out differences between the competing versions, and then put the result before both houses. Last year immigration reform got bogged down in committee, amid opposition from conservative Republicans, and Cardenas warned that could happen again.

"Anti-immigrant groups have a strong base that takes action, and politicians listen to them," she said.

Mexico, whose citizens make up the bulk of undocumented workers in the United States, called the proposal "an important step toward the approval of comprehensive (US) immigration reform this year," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Victor Aviles.