Updated 10pm - European Union home affairs ministers this evening agreed in principle on a plan to share and resettle 120,000 migrants who arrived recently in Central Europe but they reached no agreement on how the plan will be carried out.

They confirmed an earlier plan for the redistribution of 40,000 migrants from Italy and Germany, of whom Malta will take 60 over two years.

Maltese Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela said the ministers agreed in principle on the plan to relocate the 120,000 migrants but not the formula how. Some member states are insisting that such burden sharing must not be mandatory. Another meeting will be held on October 8.

French and German ministers had said before the meeting that they would push for firm commitments on the distribution, and a timetable.

"It is possible to achieve this, but ... I don't know if we'll manage it today," Germany's Thomas de Maiziere told reporters, describing Berlin's reimposition of border controls on the Austrian frontier yesterday as a sign it would not accept a "de facto" distribution of migrants into Germany.

France's Bernard Cazeneuve noted that he had already last month set up new checks close to the Italian border and could follow Germany's lead in suspending Europe's Schengen open-frontier rules if necessary. He called for tighter controls on the EU's external borders and more help for Turkey and other countries which are already accommodating millions of Syrian refugees.

The meeting began with formal enactment of an initial pilot scheme to relocate 40,000 people from Italy and Greece, according to a tweet from Luxembourg, holder of the EU presidency. They are to be distributed on a voluntary basis following opposition to proposed quotas.