EU's Tusk mulls special migration summit, decision Thursday

EU president Donald Tusk said Tuesday he would consider requests by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others for an emergency summit on migrants and decide later this week, AFP reports.

Calls for a crisis meeting of European Union leaders were mounting after interior ministers failed to reach a deal Monday on binding quotas for the redistribution of refugees.

"During my consultations some leaders requested an extra EUCO (summit) on migration. I will continue consultations and announce my decision Thursday," Tusk said on Twitter.

Tusk had last week warned that he would call a special summit if the ministers failed to agree on a solution at their meeting in Brussels, warning of the need for "solidarity and unity."

Merkel and her Austrian counterpart Werner Faymann on Tuesday jointly called for a summit to be held next week to deal with Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War II.

"It is a problem for the entire European Union and therefore we argued for a special EU summit to be held next week," Merkel said in Berlin.