EU nations boycott migration summit amid escalating tensions

Tensions over migrant arrivals is simmering in Europe and a planned weekend EU mini-summit has been boycotted by some nations in a veiled swipe at Germany.

Migrants disembarking the SOS Mediterranee's Aquarius ship and MSF (Doctors Without Borders) NGOs, after its arrival at the eastern port of Valencia, Spain. Source: AAP

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte says a draft EU accord on migration has been withdrawn after he clashed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel over an issue that is splitting Europe.

The leaders of four central European states have confirmed they will boycott an EU mini-summit on migration, taking a veiled swipe at Merkel by accusing countries of pushing the issue for domestic political reasons.

The withdrawn declaration was drafted ahead of an emergency meeting of 10 EU leaders set for Sunday in Brussels, with Germany and France hoping for a swift deal that could be approved at a full EU summit at the end of next week.

It contained key elements Merkel needs to placate her rebellious coalition partner, the Bavaria-based Christian Social Union (CSU) and its head, Horst Seehofer, who is also Germany's interior minister.

But Rome objected to provisions that said asylum seekers would have to be returned to the EU country they had first logged their claim in, which often means Italy.

Rome has taken in some 650,000 boat migrants over the past five years, stoking anti-immigration sentiment in Italy and fuelling the rise of the far-right League, which forged a coalition government this month.

Protesters in Paris march in support of migrants (AAP) Source: AAP

Conte, who had threatened not to go to Brussels on Sunday unless the draft was amended, spoke to Merkel on Thursday.

"The chancellor clarified that there had been a 'misunderstanding'. The draft text released yesterday will be shelved," Conte wrote on Facebook, adding that he would now go to Brussels at the weekend.

Berlin played down the dispute. "We are in constructive talks with Italy. The meeting on Sunday has only preparatory character," a German government source said.

Italian authorities appeared to relent on Thursday after at first refusing to accept 226 migrants on board a German rescue ship, saying later in the day they would take them in but impound the vessel.

Anti-immigrant interior minister Matteo Salvini initially said the Dutch-flagged Lifeline should take the people it had plucked from the Mediterranean to the Netherlands, not Italy.

But transport minister Danilo Toninelli, who oversees the coastguard, later said it was unsafe for the 32-metre vessel to travel so far with so many people on board.