Last updated 11.50pm - The first session of the two-day Valletta Summit on Migration was less confrontational than expected, Prime minister Joseph Muscat said tonight.

He said African countries were increasingly realising that the situation regarding migration needed to change and a return policy was no longer seen as taboo. 

This summit could therefore be the first step for a framework to save lives, grant asylum to those who deserved it, but make repatriation of the others easier. That included agreement by the African countries to take migrants back.

Dr Muscat observed that people who came from war zones usually presented their documents and had justified reasons for asylum.

But others tore up their documents and it was a problem to establish who they were and where they came from. Even when their nationality was established, their countries refused to take them back and insisted on proof of identity.   

One of the areas the summit is working on is the issuing of a European document for these migrants which the countries of origin would recognise so that these people could be repatriated safely and in full respect for their rights.

Those countries which agreed to this process would be given EU aid, which would consist of development programmes as well as access to specific EU markets, something, Dr Muscat said, that was very important for them.

The prime minister said not all African countries were speaking with one voice. Some agree with these proposals, such as Senegal, but others were skeptical.

Other countries, like Ghana, were seeking EU help even though migrants did not leave from there. Rather, these countries were receiving migrants from their neighbours.  

The EU wished to partner and help all countries, Dr Muscat said, and the €1.8 billion trust fund was a starting point, although more funds would be needed. 

Dr Muscat also indicated that rather than refugee centres in Africa, 'information centres' may be set up there. 

Reuters reported that the EU leaders had offered their African counterparts aid and better access to Europe in return for help curbing chaotic migration across the Mediterranean and promises to take back those Europe expels. 

A 17-page Action Plan, seen by Reuters, to be signed tomorrow, sets out dozens of initiatives. Many build on decades of stuttering cooperation between the world's poorest continent and wealthy but ageing Europe.

Some are newer, including a European pledge to drive down costs for sending money home from Europe to Africa -- a nod to African governments' concerns that curbing migration could crimp remittances from expatriate citizens that are estimated to bring twice as much to Africa's economy as foreign aid donations.

And EU officials highlighted renewed offers to ease visas and other access for African business and other travellers from countries that agree to take back citizens whom EU states want to expel as illegal aliens. Barely a third of Africans ordered deported from Europe actually leave at present, EU data shows.

Under a pilot scheme, African states will send officials to Europe to help identify those of their citizens whom they would accept.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, under ferocious pressure at home and from her EU neighbours after accepting up to a million asylum-seekers this year, said the aim was a "comradely" relationship with Africa.

"But at the same time," she added, "A relationship which includes, besides assistance, clear demands and expectations."

EU Council President Tusk made clear that African states had a legal obligation to take back citizens being deported and that Europe, while preferring to persuade people to leave and offering help with building a better life at home, would force out the unwilling.

"Non-voluntary return is a prerequisite for a well managed migration policy," he told the assembled national leaders.

African officials and leaders made clear they welcomed the offer of cooperation but voiced reservations on some issues.

Macky Sall, the president of Senegal, said he had to consider those who had "braved death" to cross deserts and seas to reach Europe and those who died on the way. He called on Europeans to regularize the status of those who had made it.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the former South African minister who runs the African Union executive, pointedly reminded Europeans it was they who had migrated and colonised much of the world and that most African migrants did not leave Africa.

"The problem we are facing today is because some countries in Europe have taken a fortress approach," she said. "There is no country in the world that can be a fortress."

She hit out at what she called plans for migrant "processing centres" in Africa that she said would in effect mean detaining Africans in poor conditions, subject to abuse and radicalisation. EU officials insisted the planned centres will offer migrants only information and an initial assessment of asylum claims.

Her call to modernise Africa to employ its fast-expanding legions of young people and break dependence on selling raw materials was echoed by French President Francois Hollande.

"If we don't understand that we must invest massively in the development of Africa, then in the coming years we will keep on always having these flows of migration," he said.