World

BRUSSELS — The European Union aims to rehouse thousands of asylum-seekers from Greece in the coming months, officials said on Thursday as EU ministers wrestled with concerns about the legality of a new plan to force migrants back to Turkey.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the member of the executive European Commission who handles migration, told reporters at a meeting of national interior ministers that at least 6,000 people a month should be relocated to other member states under a scheme which has moved only about 900 hundred people so far.

Avramopoulos noted a recent acceleration in relocations under the system which has divided EU governments as some refuse to take in refugees, most of whom are from Syria and Iraq, though he acknowledged the target was ambitious.

Some 35,000 people have been stranded in Greece since Austria and states on the route to Germany began closing borders, barring access to migrants hoping to follow more than a million who reached northern Europe last year. EU officials said that blockage appeared to have made more asylum seekers ask for relocation rather than try to make their own way northward.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, under electoral pressure at home after opening Germany's doors to a million Syrians, has pressed EU partners to share the load. But few are keen and critics say many of those rehoused elsewhere will head for Germany anyway.

On Monday, Merkel pushed EU leaders to pencil a surprise deal she brokered with Ankara to halt the flow to Greece by returning to Turkey anyone arriving on the Greeks islands. But legal details are still being worked out for an EU summit next week and many governments are still sceptical of the scheme.

The top United Nations human rights official said it could mean illegal "collective and arbitrary expulsions". EU ministers also voiced unease at the price of Ankara's cooperation, notably an accelerated process to ease visa rules for Turks by June and revive negotiations on Turkey's distant EU membership hopes.

"I ask myself if the EU is throwing its values overboard," said Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, whose government has led a push to seal off Greece from the north as an alternative to relying on Turkey to stop migrants leaving.

She noted the seizure of an opposition newspaper in Turkey three days before it presented EU leaders with the draft deal, under which Europeans will take one Syrian direct from Turkey for every compatriot who is detained and sent back from Greece.

Human rights concerns also pose problems for EU lawyers trying to tie up the package by the March 17-18 summit, notably because to despatch people at speed back to Turkey relies on an assessment that Turkey is a "safe" country for them to be in.

An EU definition of such a state includes a reference to the Geneva Convention on refugees, to which Turkey does not fully comply, leaving legal experts in Brussels hunting a solution.

"It will be very difficult to arrive at something legally sound and implementable before the summit," an EU official said.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that Greece and Turkey might have to pass new legislation.

The conundrum highlights how far the EU is willing to go to win Turkey's help on the crisis, which poses security risks and plays into the hands of right-wing populists in the bloc.

Asked about how much force might be used to deport people who have risked their lives and spent large sums to reach Europe, Avramopoulos said there could be "no push-back methods".

Klaas Dijkhoff, the Dutch minister who chaired the meeting, said the mix of expulsion and legal resettlement should deter smuggling and help Turkey: "We have to show that it doesn't pay to use a trafficker and come to Europe in an illegal way and we have to show Turkey we are not leaving them with all the work."

But ministers also discussed a need to prepare for people turning to other routes, including by sea to Italy from Albania or Libya. The death rate last year on the route to Italy from North Africa, based on data from the International Organisation for Migration, was nearly one in 20, compared with less than one in 1,000 between Turkey and Greece.

Nonetheless, three Afghan children, one an infant of six months, were among five people drowned off Lesbos on Thursday as people continue to risk the trip before a Turkey-EU deal bites.

SEOUL — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, as South Korean and US forces conducted massive war games.

The North also announced it had scrapped all agreements with the South on commercial exchange projects and would "liquidate" South Korean assets left behind in its territory.

North Korea has a large stockpile of short-range missiles and is developing long-range and intercontinental missiles as well. Thursday's missiles flew about 500km into the sea, off the east coast city of Wonsan and probably were part of the Soviet-developed Scud series, South Korea's defence ministry said.

Japan, within range of the longer-range variant of Scud missiles or the upgraded Rodong missiles, lodged a protest through the North Korean embassy in Beijing, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.

A Pentagon spokesman, Commander Bill Urban, said on Thursday the US Defence Department was aware of the reports of the missile launches. "We are monitoring the situation closely," he said.

North Korea often fires short-range missiles when tensions rise on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang gets particularly upset about the annual US-South Korea drills, which it says are preparations for an invasion.

The US and South Korea remain technically at war with the North because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armed truce instead of a peace agreement.

Around 17,000 US military personnel are participating alongside some 300,000 South Korean troops in what South Korea's Defence Ministry has called the "largest-ever" joint military exercises.

North Korea on Sunday warned it would make a "pre-emptive and offensive nuclear strike" in response to the exercises.

‘Liquidating’ assets

After Thursday's missile launches, North Korea announced it would "liquidate" South Korean assets left behind in the Kaesong industrial zone and in the Mount Kumgang tourist zone.

South Korea protested the move as "totally unacceptable" but did not say what it could do to recover the assets that it valued in excess of 1.4 trillion won ($1.17 billion).

Seoul suspended operations in the jointly run zone last month as punishment for the North's rocket launch and nuclear test.

Mount Kumgang was the first major inter-Korean cooperation project. Thousands of South Koreans visited the resort between 1998 and 2008. Seoul ended the tours in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean tourist who wandered into a restricted area.

North Korea is also livid about stepped-up United Nations sanctions adopted last week following its recent nuclear test and long-range missile launch.

South Korea's foreign ministry said Thursday's missile launches again violated a series of UN Security Council resolutions and it would refer the matter to the Council's sanctions committee mandated to enforce the resolutions.

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei described the situation on the Korean peninsula as "complex and sensitive".

"All sides should stop their provocative words and deeds to avoid a further rise in tensions," he said.

Miniaturised warheads

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country has miniaturised nuclear warheads to mount on ballistic missiles, state media reported on Wednesday, and called on his military to be prepared to mount pre-emptive attacks against the United States and South Korea.

It was his first direct comment on the technology needed to deploy nuclear missiles. North Korean state media released photographs they said showed Kim Jong- un inspecting a spherical miniaturised warhead. State media have previously made that claim, which has been widely questioned and never independently verified.

South Korea's Defence Ministry said it did not believe the North had successfully miniaturised a nuclear warhead or deployed a functioning intercontinental ballistic missile.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby declined on Wednesday to comment on Kim's claim to have miniaturised nuclear warheads and accused him of "provocative rhetoric".

"I'd say the young man needs to pay more attention to the North Korean people and taking care of them, than in pursuing these sorts of reckless capabilities," Kirby said.

The Pentagon said this week it had not seen North Korea demonstrate a capability to miniaturise a nuclear warhead. But Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Wednesday the department was working on US ballistic missile defences to be prepared.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on January 6 but its claim to have set off a miniaturised hydrogen bomb last month has been disputed by the US and South Korean governments and many experts, who said the blast was too small to back it up.

WASHINGTON — Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton suffered a surprise loss to challenger Bernie Sanders in a major state primary Tuesday, as billionaire Donald Trump notched a trio of easy victories in the Republican presidential nomination race.

The former secretary of state slumped to defeat in the industrial rust belt state of Michigan, where Sanders snagged 49.9 per cent of the vote compared to Clinton's 48.2 per cent with almost all precincts already reported.

"This has been a fantastic night in Michigan," Sanders said shortly before the race was called in his favor.

However, Clinton handily defeated her rival in the southern Gulf state of Mississippi, thanks to a strong turnout by African-Americans.

And despite the upset, Clinton received a psychological boost by passing the half-way point in the race to reach the 2,382 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.

Nevertheless, even with the delegate math in Clinton's favor, Sanders's strong showing will reinvigorate his campaign, and raised questions about her ability to win key industrial states in the general election, such as Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Sanders, a US senator from Vermont and self-described democratic socialist, has energised young voters with calls for greater economic equality and denunciations of what he sees as a corrupt US political system.

Meanwhile, Trump shrugged off a barrage of negative advertising and intense efforts by the party establishment to derail his White House campaign to win primaries in Michigan and Mississippi, signaling to his rivals he can survive anything they throw at him.

He also emerged the victor of caucuses held in Hawaii.

"I don't think I've had so many horrible, horrible things said about me in one week, $38 million worth of horrible lies," Trump told a crowd in Florida as he celebrated his first two victories.

"I think we ought to use that money to fight Hillary Clinton and the Democrats."

It was not a clean sweep for Trump, however. He came second to Senator Ted Cruz, his nearest Republican competitor, in Idaho. 

Poor Rubio showing 

Clinton has now won 13 out of 22 nomination contests, with Trump prevailing in 15 out of 24 races as the two inch closer to the tipping point in their respective races.

Marco Rubio, the senator whom mainstream Republicans rallied behind as the man to topple Trump, suffered another poor showing, facing the prospect of receiving zero delegates from either Michigan or Mississippi, the two main prizes of the night.

Trump has already called on Rubio to drop out of the race, but the senator has vowed to stay in at least until his home state of Florida — which with 99 delegates at stake is a major prize on the primary calendar — votes on March 15.

"They didn't do so well tonight, folks," Trump said in a victory speech in Florida, referring to his Republican rivals.

"Only one person did well tonight: Donald Trump."

The braggadocious Trump's caustic style has angered some voters — and fellow Republicans — but he insisted Tuesday he could draw millions more to his movement.

"We'll take many, many people away from the Democrats," he said. "We're seeing that. We had people come over here who have never voted Republican."

In a bizarre scene, Trump spent several minutes hawking some of his companies' odder products — water, steaks, wine, Trump vodka, even his Trump University — which establishment critics had berated as examples of his failed enterprises.

With his latest big wins — claiming 47.3 per cent in Mississippi and 36.5 per cent in Michigan based on near-final results — Trump solidifies his claim to have the broadest appeal among the Republican electorate as he marches toward the nomination.

But a new Washington Post poll of Republican-leaning registered voters shows Trump with 34 per cent support nationwide, compared with 25 per cent for Cruz, 18 per cent for Rubio and 13 per cent for John Kasich.

That is a tighter race than in January, when the Post showed Trump 16 points ahead of Cruz and 26 ahead of Rubio.

Cruz, the 45-year-old champion of the religious right, has done well in delegate-rich Texas and nearby states and is nipping at the billionaire real estate mogul's heels.

A total of 150 Republican delegates were up for grabs Tuesday out of 1,237 needed to win the party's nomination.

As of Monday, Trump had 384 delegates, compared with 300 for Cruz, 151 for Rubio and 37 for Kasich.

Trump is expected to win dozens more after Tuesday. 

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country has successfully miniaturised a thermo-nuclear warhead, as Pyongyang on Wednesday continued to talk up its nuclear strike capabilities amid rising military tensions on the Korean peninsula.

While the North has boasted of mastering miniaturisation before, this is the first time Kim has directly claimed the breakthrough that experts see as a game-changing step towards a credible North Korean nuclear threat to the US mainland.

Kim also stressed that the miniaturised warheads were "thermo-nuclear" devices, echoing the North's claim that a fourth nuclear test it conducted in January was of a more powerful hydrogen bomb.

"The nuclear warheads have been standardised to be fit for ballistic missiles by miniaturising them," Kim noted during a visit with nuclear technicians, the North's official KCNA news agency said.

"This can be called a true nuclear deterrent," he was quoted as saying.

The North Korean ruling party's newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, carried a large front-page picture of Kim standing in front of what some experts said would appear to be a sized-down device.

"Obviously we only have the picture to go on, but it looks as you would expect for a compact nuclear warhead," said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Programme at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) in California.

Melissa Hanham, another expert on North Korea's WMD programme at MIIS, said Pyongyang's nuclear programme had been running long enough, with enough tests, to make it "distinctly possible" that effective miniaturisation had been achieved.

"I don't know that they could target that missile very well, or what it's range might be, but the claim cannot be dismissed as bluster," Hanham said.

Kim's comments came a day after the North's powerful National Defence Commission threatened pre-emptive nuclear attacks on South Korea and the US mainland, as Seoul and Washington kicked off large-scale joint military exercises.

Military tensions have surged on the divided Korean peninsula since the North's nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch last month.

The UN Security Council responded by imposing tough new sanctions last week, which Pyongyang has condemned and labelled as part of a US-led conspiracy to bring down Kim's regime by force.

The miniaturisation issue is key as, while North Korea is known to have a small stockpile of nuclear weapons, its ability to deliver them accurately to a chosen target on the tip of a ballistic missile has been a subject of heated debate.

There are numerous question marks over the North's weapons delivery systems, with many experts believing it is years from developing a working inter-continental ballistic missile that could strike the continental United States.

It is also unclear whether any miniaturised device the North has designed would be robust enough to survive the shock, vibration and temperature change associated with ballistic flight.

Most experts rule out the prospect of North Korea launching any sort of nuclear strike with a largely untested system, saying it would be tantamount to suicide given overwhelming US technical superiority.

"Kim's remarks should really be seen in the context of the cyclical, bellicose language the North uses on an annual basis, especially in the wake of the UN sanctions," Hanham said.

"His comments and the photos are making the message very explicit: 'We have a nuclear weapon and you have to respect us,'" she added.

South Korea had a similar take, with the Unification Ministry saying the North was essentially reacting to the imposition of the new UN sanctions.

But a ministry spokesman noted that Seoul believed Pyongyang had secured nuclear-related miniaturisation technology "to a certain degree".

North Korea's claim to have successfully tested an H-bomb in January was greeted with scepticism at the time as the estimated yield was seen as far too low for a full-fledged thermo-nuclear device.

However, weapons experts have suggested it may have been a "boosted" fission device, which makes more efficient use of nuclear material and can be made smaller without sacrificing yield.

GENEVA/BRUSSELS — The United Nations and human rights groups warned on Tuesday that a tentative European Union deal to send back all irregular migrants to Turkey in exchange for political and financial rewards could be illegal.

"I am deeply concerned about any arrangement that would involve the blanket return of anyone from one country to another without spelling out the refugee protection safeguards under international law," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

He was speaking hours after the 28 EU leaders sketched an accord with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Brussels that would grant Ankara more money to keep refugees in Turkey, faster visa-free travel for Turks and a speeding up of Ankara's long-stalled membership talks.

Rights group Amnesty International called the proposed mass return of migrants a "death blow to the right to seek asylum". Relief charity Doctors without Borders said it was cynical and inhumane.

But the executive European Commission insisted the deal to put an end to a mass influx of more than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond, due to be finalised next week, was fully legal.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who pushed for the accord to assuage anxious voters before regional elections on Sunday, said things were finally moving in the right direction after nearly a million Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and others flooded into Germany alone last year. She denied accusations that Turkey was using refugees to blackmail Europe.

The 28 EU leaders were taken by surprise by the bold, last minute Turkish initiative, which went beyond previous plans for more limited cooperation. Unable to sign up to firm commitments immediately, they agreed to wrap up a deal at their next summit on March 17-18 but several points remain sensitive.

Migrants marooned in squalor on Greece's frontier with Macedonia by the closure of borders further north vowed to keep trying to cross Europe to wealthy Germany, while Syrian refugees in Turkey said they too would not be deterred by the lockdown.

"We will stay here even if we all die," said Kadriya Jasem, a 25-year-old from Aleppo in Syria, one of 13,000 people living in a makeshift camp in Idomeni on the Greek side of the border with Macedonia.

One-for-one

Under the tentative deal, the EU would admit one refugee directly from Turkey for each Syrian it took back from the Greek Aegean islands, and those who attempted the perilous sea route would be returned and go to the back of the queue.

The aim is to persuade Syrians and others that they have better prospects if they stay in Turkey, with increased EU funding for housing, schools and subsistence.

EU officials questioned how the one-for-one scheme would work in practice, with several EU countries objecting to any quota system for resettling refugees.

It might also be overwhelmed if the volume of migrants crossing the Aegean remains high despite increased NATO-backed sea patrols by Greece and Turkey.

Brussels sought to dismiss concerns over the legality of the proposed re-admission arrangements.

"You can be sure that the agreement that will come at the end of it will comply with both European and international law," Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein told a news briefing.

Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker cited EU asylum procedure rules to argue that member states were entitled to refuse to consider a claim from a person who arrives from a safe third country.

Some Commission officials have private misgivings both about Turkey's "safe" status, given its human rights record, and the compatibility of mass returns with asylum seekers' right to an individual assessment of their claim, an EU source said.

It was unclear whether an eventual deal could be challenged in European or international courts. Any case might take years to reach a ruling, with EU doors closed in the meantime.

Migration experts said refugees would likely try other routes if Turkey's closure worked. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have begun tightening identity controls and erecting fences on their eastern borders, fearing the Baltic region will become a new entry point for migrants.

EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, speaking in the European Parliament, welcomed the preliminary deal and said: "We need now to ensure a quick implementation of the voluntary humanitarian scheme from Turkey and to implement projects that will further improve the situation of the Syrians in Turkey."

But many lawmakers criticised the strategy to regain control of the influx, saying the EU must ensure people needing international protection are able to claim asylum.

"In the name of 'realpolitik', member states seemed ready to trample on their principles to conclude a shameful bargain with Turkey," the French Socialist group said.

Critics denounced a cascade of border closures down the main Western Balkan migration route that has left 33,000 people stranded in Greece, causing a humanitarian catastrophe.

Avramopolus responded on Twitter: "It is our responsibility to create more legal pathways for people in need of protection to come to Europe legally and safely.”

"Let me assure you that @EU_Commission does not forget and does not forsake its humanitarian duties."

SEOUL — South Korea said Tuesday it is imposing unilateral sanctions on North Korea over its recent nuclear test and rocket launch, including a ban on financial dealings with 40 individuals and 30 entities.

The announcement came a day after North Korea warned of pre-emptive nuclear strikes in response to the start of US-South Korean military drills it views as a rehearsal for invasion. This year's annual drills, set to run until late April, are the largest ever.

Also Tuesday, Seoul's spy agency accused North Korea of having hacked into the smartphones of dozens of key South Korean officials, stealing text and voice messages, and their phone call logs.

The National Intelligence Service said the cyberattacks occurred between late February and early March. It didn't say which officials' phones were hacked or whether the stolen messages contained any sensitive information.

The new South Korean sanctions target 38 individuals and 24 organisations in North Korea who Seoul says are responsible for the North's development of weapons of mass destruction. A Singaporean, a Taiwanese and six entities in Myanmar, Thailand, Taiwan and other countries will also be sanctioned for indirectly assisting North Korea, the South Korean government said in a statement.

It said South Koreans will be barred from engaging in financial and foreign exchange dealings with the blacklisted people and organisations, whose assets in South Korea will be frozen.

South Korea also said it will ban the entrance of any ship that has stopped at a North Korean port in the previous 180 days. Currently only North Korean ships are banned.

It said it will continue to advise South Korean citizens not to eat at North Korea-run restaurants around the world. North Korea operates about 130 restaurants in China and other countries.

Senior South Korean official Lee Sukjoon told reporters that the restaurants are a source of foreign currency that is suspected of being linked to the North's development of weapons of mass destruction. He did not elaborate.

It's unclear how much the new South Korean steps will sting North Korea, which has already been slapped with international sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs. The UN Security Council last week adopted its toughest sanctions against North Korea in two decades. North Korea described them as "nothing new" but warned it would take unspecified "merciless" steps in response.

South Korea's announcement underscores its pursuit of a hard-line policy toward the North. South Korea earlier halted operations at a jointly run factory park in North Korea, the last major cooperation project between the rivals.

The North Korean entities targeted by the new sanctions include banks, trading and shipping companies, and an atomic research centre. The individuals include Kim Yong-chul, a former head of North Korea's intelligence agency who was believed to be behind two attacks blamed on North Korea that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010. Many of the North Korean individuals and entities are already under US, Japanese, UN or other international sanctions.

There was no immediate reaction from North Korea to the South Korean allegations of cellphone hacking.

South Korea's spy agency said North Korea also tried unsuccessfully to hack into the e-mail accounts of South Korean railway officials earlier this year in preparation for a cyberattack on the country's railway control system.

Seoul has accused Pyongyang of launching a slew of cyberattacks in recent years, but Pyongyang has denied the allegations.

Many of the alleged cyberattacks failed to infiltrate targeted computer systems of businesses and government agencies. But in several cases, hackers destroyed hard drive disks, paralysed banking systems or disrupted access to websites. One attack was so crippling that a South Korean bank was unable to resume online banking services for more than two weeks.

Last year, South Korea said North Korea has a 6,000-member cyber army dedicated to disrupting the South's military and government. The figure was a sharp increase from a 2013 South Korean estimate of 3,000 such specialists.

SEOUL — North Korea threatened pre-emptive and "indiscriminate" nuclear strikes against South Korea and the United States on Monday, as the two allies kicked off their annual, large-scale military exercises.

The drills always raise tensions on the divided Korean peninsula and the situation is particularly volatile this year, given the North's recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch and its fury over tough UN sanctions imposed in response.

Participation in the joint exercises — known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle — has been bumped up this year to involve 300,000 South Korean and around 17,000 US troops, as well as strategic US naval vessels and air force assets.

In a statement issued hours before the drills began, North Korea's powerful National Defence Commission said it was prepared for an "all-out" military counter-offensive.

Describing the exercises as "nuclear war drills" aimed at undermining North Korea's sovereignty, the statement said the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army was ready to launch a "pre-emptive and offensive nuclear strike" in response.

The threat came just days after leader Kim Jong-un ordered the country's nuclear arsenal to be placed on standby, in response to the sanctions resolution adopted last week by the UN Security Council.

Pyongyang has issued similar, dire warnings of nuclear attack in the past, usually during periods of elevated military tensions.

While the North is known to have a small stockpile of nuclear warheads, experts are divided about its ability to mount them on a working missile delivery system.

The National Defence Commission said plans for what it called a "pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice" had been ratified by Kim Jong-un.

The plans would come into operation in the event of "even the slightest military action" by the North's enemies, it said.

"The indiscriminate nuclear strike... will clearly show those keen on aggression and war, the military mettle of [North Korea]," said the statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency.

Targets would include operational American bases on the Korean peninsula and elsewhere in Asia, as well as the US mainland.

'Flames and ashes' 

"If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies even right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to seas in flames and ashes in a moment," the statement added.

Despite a pair of successful long-range rocket launches, most experts believe North Korea is years away from developing a genuine inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the US mainland.

In Seoul, the defence ministry cautioned the North against acting out its bellicose rhetoric.

"If North Korea launches a provocation, our military will respond sternly and mercilessly," ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told reporters.

Pyongyang has long condemned the Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises, which stretch over nearly two months, as provocative rehearsals for invasion, while Seoul and Washington insist they are purely defensive in nature.

The North's threat of a nuclear response appeared to have been prompted, in part, by South Korean media reports that this year's drills would role play surgical strikes against key North Korean nuclear and missile facilities.

The scale of the exercises was ramped up following the North's fourth nuclear test on January 6 and February's rocket launch, which was seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.

A UN Security Council resolution adopted last week laid out the toughest sanctions imposed on Pyongyang to date over its nuclear weapons programme.

It breaks new ground by targeting specific sectors key to the North Korean economy and seeking to undermine the North's use of, and access to, international transport systems.

The Philippines has already seized a North Korean cargo ship which was among 31 listed by the resolution as banned from international ports.

BRUSSELS — Turkey ratcheted up its demands for helping the European Union with the migrant crisis at a high-stakes summit in Brussels on Monday, seeking an extra 3 billion euros in aid in return for its urgent cooperation.

Ankara is also haggling for a refugee swap under which the 28-nation EU would resettle one Syrian refugee from Turkey in exchange for every Syrian refugee that Turkey takes back from the overstretched Greek islands.

Under the last-minute proposals tabled by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the bloc would also bring forward visa-free travel for Turks to June, and speed up the country's long-stalled EU membership bid.

The EU is paying an increasingly high price to secure Turkey's help in dealing with the biggest migration crisis since World War II, but has little choice as Turkey is the main launching point for refugees and migrants crossing the Aegean Sea to Greece.

In Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, criticised the EU for a four-month delay in disbursing an original 3 billion euros in aid for 2016-17 under a deal agreed in November.

"It has been four months. They are yet to deliver," Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara. "Mr prime minister is currently in Brussels. I hope he will return with the money."

Erdogan has previously threatened to "flood" the EU with migrants.

'New proposal'

But Davutoglu took a softer tone.

"Turkey has been very generous in receiving 2.7 million refugees but many are trying to leave for Europe. Therefore before coming here we worked on a new package of proposals," Davutoglu told reporters after talks with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels during a break in the summit.

"With this new proposal our objective is to rescue the lives of the refugees, to discourage those who want to misuse and exploit the desperate situation of the refugees, meaning human smugglers, and to have a new era in EU Turkey relations."

More than 1 million refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe since the start of 2015 — the majority fleeing the war in Syria — with nearly 4,000 dying while crossing the Mediterranean.

But the issue has divided the 28-nation EU more than any other crisis in its history, exposing deep faultlines over money, immigration and nationalism and leaving it desperate for a solution.

European Parliament head Martin Schulz confirmed Turkey's demand for an extra 3 billion for 2018 on top of the 2016-17 money, saying it "will require additional [EU] budgetary procedures".

One EU diplomat told AFP Turkey was proposing "a potential gamechanger" where it will take back not only irregular economic migrants who have reached the Greek islands but also those from Syria deemed genuine refugees.

"In return, we have said for every Syrian they take back, we will resettle one Syrian" from camps in Turkey, where 2.7 million Syrian refugees are living, the diplomat added.

Turkey would also see visa-free travel brought forward to June if Ankara commits to immediately bringing into force the deal to readmit illegal migrants sent back from the Greek islands.

"Everybody recognises it's a very strong proposal, very rich," another EU official said.

The summit comes after EU President Donald Tusk tried to find consensus last week on a tour to Greece, the Balkans and Turkey.

But the EU was still struggling with bitter divisions at the summit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker insisted on Monday that a mention of closing the main Balkans route for migrants be dropped from a proposed final summit statement.

Merkel is facing pressure at home over her open-door policy towards refugees, which has been blamed by many countries for flooding the Balkans corridor in the first place.

The West Balkans route is the main path for migrants to get from Greece to wealthy Germany and Scandinavia.

But Austria last month abruptly capped the number of asylum seekers it would accept, triggering a domino effect of border restrictions along the Balkans that has trapped tens of thousands of desperate migrants on the border between Greece and non-EU the former Yugoslav Republic of  Macedonia.

Brussels sees curbing the flow of migrants as part of a plan to restore by the end of the year the full functioning of Europe's cherished passport-free Schengen zone after the series of border closures. 

CALAIS, France — France's first international-standard refugee camp opened in the teeth of official opposition Monday while Calais residents protested over the impact of the migrant crisis.

Three families of Iraqi Kurds were the first to arrive at the new camp in Grande-Synthe near Dunkirk on the northern French coast, an AFP reporter said.

They came from another site nearby where around 1,000 people have been living in miserable conditions with limited protection from the cold.

The new camp, featuring some 200 heated wooden cabins and proper toilets and showers, has been built by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) with the support of the local town hall, despite opposition from the French government.

It lies around 40 kilometres from the largest refugee camp on the outskirts of the port city of Calais, nicknamed the "Jungle", which is being gradually demolished by the authorities.

The new, 3.1-million-euro ($3.4 million) migrant accommodation at Grande-Synthe is thought to be the first in France to meet international standards, and MSF said they hoped soon to have 375 cabins, catering for 2,500 people.

"It's a great day for human solidarity," said local mayor Damien Careme, who fought a battle with the authorities over its construction. 

"I've overcome a failure of the state," he said, adding that he could no longer stand the sight of around 75 children living in the original camp.

The move has frustrated the government which has been trying to move refugees away from the northern coast and into centres where their movement is more controlled. 

The government's representative in northern France, Jean-Francois Cordet, said last month: "The government's policy is not to reconstitute a camp at Grande-Synthe, but to make it go away."

Several hundred residents from Calais travelled to Paris on Monday to demand state support in the face of a huge loss of business caused by the migrant crisis in the port city. 

"We are the closest point to Britain and there aren't any English people left in the streets of our town," said Antoine Ravisse, one of the organisers, estimating that Calais had lost around 40 per cent of its trade since the crisis became acute last summer.

The protesters were demanding a 10-year tax moratorium for the town, and a delegation was received at the president's Elysee Palace.

Meanwhile, demolition resumed for a second week in the Jungle camp outside Calais.

A group of children tried to offer white roses to the line of riot police holding back migrants and volunteers as workers resumed the dismantling of makeshift shelters. 

Thousands of migrants have been living in the Jungle and other smaller camps along the northern coast, desperate to reach Britain where many have family or community ties and see better hopes of gaining employment or education.

Most have turned down offers from the French government to move into heated containers alongside the Jungle, or into accommodation centres elsewhere in France, fearing doing so would end their dreams of reaching Britain.

Unlike these alternatives, the new camp at Grande-Synthe will not restrict the movement of migrants and refugees, MSF said.

BRUSSELS — At least 25 people including children drowned trying to cross the Aegean Sea on Sunday, a day before a summit at which European leaders will urge Turkey to accept "large-scale" deportations of economic migrants from Greece.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said meanwhile the alliance was broadening its new mission in the Aegean to stop migrant smugglers while working more closely with the EU border agency Frontex. 

The International Organisation for Migration said before the latest tragedy that a total of 418 people had died or gone missing already in 2016, most while attempting to reach Greece from Turkey aboard unseaworthy boats.

The Turkish coastguard said that at least 25 migrants, including ten children, perished on Sunday after their wooden boat capsized in the Aegean on the way to Greece. Fifteen migrants were rescued from the boat off the coastal town of Didim.

Turkey is the launch pad for most of the more than one million refugees and migrants who have come to the continent since early 2015.

The European Union's 28 leaders are seeking more cooperation from Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at their talks in Brussels on Monday in order to slow the flow from Turkey to Greece, the main entry point to Europe.

Donald Tusk, the European Council president and summit host, said in his invitation letter that success depended largely on securing Turkey's agreement in Brussels for the "large-scale" readmission from Greece of economic migrants who do not qualify as refugees.

Syrians, who top the influx of people into Europe, are considered genuine refugees requiring admission under international law.

Speaking to reporters at Istanbul airport before leaving for Brussels, Davutoglu said Turkey had taken "important steps" to fulfill its part of a stalled November deal with the EU to curb migrant flows to Europe.

He said there was a decline in numbers, although "not a dramatic decline" because of the mounting violence in Syria's civil war which was causing more people to flee to neighbouring Turkey.

Despite the progress, the EU said too many people were still heading from Turkey to Greece, with nearly 2,000 arriving daily in February, a winter month.

In preparation for the summit, Davutoglu was to meet late Sunday with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, which holds the current rotating EU presidency, a diplomat told AFP.

Following their lunch Monday with Davutoglu in Brussels, EU leaders are to meet by themselves.

Greece bracing for more migrants 

EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramapoulos said Saturday that Greece — already struggling with a buildup of 30,000 migrants — was expected to receive "another 100,000" by the end of March.

EU leaders will also try to increase aid for Greece which has seen non-EU the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and EU countries on the western Balkans route virtually shut their borders, trapping asylum seekers desperate to head north to wealthy Germany and Scandinavia.

Brussels unveiled Friday a plan to restore by the end of the year the full functioning of Europe's cherished passport-free Schengen zone after the series of border closures. 

It was timed with calls for not only better cooperation from Turkey but also the creation of an EU coastguard force by the summer and help for Greece to strengthen its external border.

If Turkey substantially reduces the migrant flow, Rutte has said, Europe could implement a more "ambitious" plan to resettle refugees directly from camps in Turkey, which already host 2.7 million Syrian refugees.

But Davutoglu objected to the sequencing and said both should be done "simultaneously". 

He said he would discuss with his EU counterparts efforts to start within weeks building schools and hospitals for refugees with the three billion euros ($3.3 billion) pledged by Europe under the November deal.

'Wasted money' 

Outspoken Czech President Milos Zeman said the EU should not give Turkey the three billion euros because it was "neither ready nor capable" of helping migrants. "It's only wasted money," Zeman told TV Prima.

In its report, the commission urged Turkey to fulfill other terms of the November deal and "take decisive action against migrant smuggling" by stepping up police work, coast guard patrols and cooperation with NATO.

Turkey on Wednesday denied claims it was blocking the NATO anti-smuggling mission, launched last month, after a Western diplomat said the Turks had barred alliance vessels recently from Turkish waters. 

And NATO's Stoltenberg gave no sign there was a problem when he said the mission's "activity will now be expanded to take place also in territorial waters”.