Malta's decision to accept 292 migrants as part of an EU resettlement mechanism would guarantee that in case of a sudden influx of migrants, other member states would have to share some of the burden, Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela said this evening at a public consultation meeting in Castille.

He said that Malta's low unemployment rate meant that it had to take more migrants per capita than other member states.

While acknowledging that a number of countries had vociferously expressed their opposition to this mechanism, he said that their stance in a recent council of ministers meeting had mellowed.

He expressed cautious optimism that some form of agreement would be reached when EU leaders meet in Brussels tomorrow and Friday.

Reacting to concerns from the floor that Malta could not cope with an influx of migrants, he said that the Dublin II regulation - an EU law on processing asylum applications - was no longer adequate and Malta was pushing for amendments.

In his introduction Mr Abela said that a bill outlining a series of changes in the training regime of prospective members of disciplined forces would be presented soon. This would pave the way for accreditation from the University of Malta and the Malta College for Art Science and Technology.

The home affairs minister also announced that work was under way to merge the public registry and the land registry into one central unit.