Italy wants asylum seekers screened outside EU

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has demanded that the European Union set up an office in Africa to screen requests from asylum seekers and help keep out illegal immigrants.

"The European Union must install an office in one of these countries (on Africa's Mediterranean rim) to decide which immigrants can be granted asylum status, and then share those who gain it among the different European nations," he said.

Speaking at an EU summit in Brussels, the Italian leader said that "illegal immigration weighs essentially on the shoulders of member states on the Mediterranean, when it should be shared by all Europe."

"I have insisted that this question be on the agenda of the next European Union summit in October," he said.

Italy is one of the prime arrival points for would-be immigrants fleeing through Africa in search of better lives in Europe, and Mr Berlusconi regularly complains that his EU partners should share more of the burden.

Some 6,760 illegal immigrants arrived in Italy in the first half of this year. Many transit through Libya. (AFP)