Migrants who want to become Australian citizens will be forced to sit an English language test and sign a commitment to the country's laws and values, Prime Minister John Howard announced yesterday.

Howard, whose announcement comes one year after racial riots erupted on Sydney beaches when white mobs attacked Lebanese-Australians to "reclaim the beach", said there was popular support for a citizenship test.

The test will ensure immigrants have a working knowledge of English as well as an understanding of basic aspects of Australian society, culture and history, he said.

"It is designed, not as some kind of trivial pursuit, but is designed to ensure that people do understand and have a working capacity in the national language, which is English," he said.

The conservative prime minister, who has tightened immigration rules while in office to deter refugees from arriving here by boat from South East Asia, said the test was not intended to be discriminatory.

"It's not designed in any way to keep some people out and encourage others to come in, that's not the purpose of it," he said.