EU foreign ministers have held talks on building an anti-terrorism alliance which would include Muslim countries.
The move comes with Europe on high alert after the deadly Paris attacks and anti-terror raids in Belgium.
The immediate focus for the 28-nation European Union is how to prevent foreign fighters returning from the battlefields of Syria and Iraq even more radicalised and well trained.
"We will start with a discussion on how to counter terrorism not only in Europe but in other parts of the world," EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini said as she arrived for the Brussels meeting on Monday.
"We need to share information more, we need to co-operate more," Mogherini said, welcoming the presence of Arab League secretary general Nabil al-Arabi.
"We will discuss with the secretary general how to increase the level of co-operation with our partners," she said, adding: "We need an alliance, a dialogue."
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the Paris attacks, which left 17 dead, "changed Europe and the world".
"Today, we must take stock ... and discuss what we must do, including possibly increased exchanges with Muslim countries."
His British counterpart Philip Hammond took a similar line.
Monday's meeting will help prepare for a special leaders' summit on February 12 dedicated to fighting terrorism.
Belgian authorities meanwhile were still hunting Abdelhamid Abaaoud, considered the brains behind the cell plotting to kill Belgian police that was broken up last week.
Prosecutors said they would seek the extradition of a suspect arrested in Athens on Saturday.
In Germany, police banned a rally by the anti-Islamic PEGIDA movement and other open-air gatherings planned for Monday in Dresden, saying there was a "concrete threat" of an attack against its leadership.
The group claimed the threat came from the Islamic State group based in Syria and Iraq, with local media reporting PEGIDA's most prominent leader Lutz Bachmann was the target.
The PEGIDA marches have grown steadily since October and drew a record 25,000 people last Monday in the wake of the Paris attacks.
The anti-Islamic rallies have spread to other European countries as well, with the first Danish march due in Copenhagen on Monday.
Separately, a French court on Sunday prevented a rally by anti-Islamist groups in Paris on the grounds they were promoting Islamophobia.
Cherif Kouachi, one of two brothers who attacked satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on January 7, was buried in Gennevilliers, near Paris, a day after the funeral of his brother Said in the northeastern city of Reims.
The brothers were shot dead by police after a three-day manhunt following their attack on Charlie Hebdo. The magazine had enraged Muslims around the world with its repeated publication of cartoons lampooning Mohammed.
Anger then erupted in a string of majority Muslim countries after the magazine responded to the attack by running another caricature.
Fresh protests broke out Sunday in Pakistan.
Tens of thousands also rallied on Monday at a state-sponsored protest in Russia's Muslim North Caucasus region of Chechnya.
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