Washington, May 18 (PTI): The US Senate has agreed on the broad contours of a comprehensive immigration reform legislation that not only deals with an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in America but also seeks to increase the H1B visa allocation from the current 65,000 to 115,000 annually.

While, the proposed legislation has provision for increasing the number of H1B visas by 50,000, a bi-partisan group of senators made it clear that the "last word on the subject had not been said."

"There are provisions for H1B. There have been others who wanted to see an expansion of that programme and there are some members who are concerned about the fact that some of the existing H1B have been more involved in shipping jobs overseas rather than creating jobs here," said Senator Edward Kennedy while announcing the bi-partisan agreement on the Immigration legislation.

"This is an evolving issue. I'm not sure we've reached our final position on it. It's being reviewed at the current time," he said.

"In the legislation itself, it goes from the 65,000 a day to 115,000" said Arizona Republican Jon Kyl.

The White House hailed the Senate accord on the Immigration reform with the President George W Bush hoping that the House of Representatives will come through with the "second" important step.

"As I reflect upon this important accomplishment, the first step toward a comprehensive immigration bill, it reminds me of how much the Americans appreciate the fact that we can work together, and when we work together that they see positive things," President Bush said.