All European Union countries should process applications for asylum within six months, the EU's executive arm said on Wednesday, proposing further harmonisation of rules on refugee treatment.

The European Commission said its proposals gave clear guidance for deciding on asylum applications and what procedures to follow to avoid unequal treatment across the 27-nation bloc.

"Asylum seekers should have the same chance of being accepted and rejected in all EU countries," Security and Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot told a news conference.

Asylum and immigration are highly sensitive in many EU countries, such as Italy and Greece, which say they cannot cope with hundreds of thousands of people arriving as potential illegal migrants, often on creaky boats.

The time taken to process applications varies from several weeks in some EU countries to around a year in others. Rights groups say that some countries accept 80 percent of asylum seekers from Iraq, while others take almost none.

The Commission's proposals will be scrutinised and, possibly, amended by national governments and the European Parliament before becoming law.

The legislation would give EU countries three years to conform to the requirement of examining asylum applications within six months.

It would force authorities to present clearly to people their rights when arriving in a country in which they seek asylum, including migrants trying to enter the EU by boat from Africa.

"Those people who arrive on boats will be given information about their rights," Barrot said.

Human rights groups said the proposals did not guarantee just examination of claims. The legislation would continue to allow states to deny proper asylum procedures to people who had transited from a country deemed safe, the groups said.

"Slamming the door on refugees without any consideration of their individual protection needs puts in danger their lives," said Bjarte Vandvik, chief of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles.

Rights groups and some politicians have criticised Italy for automatically sending boat people to Libya without checking whether they may have a rightful claim to asylum.

Italy and Greece complain they carry a disproportionally heavy burden of the often-illegal migration and that other EU countries are not doing enough to help them.