French and Spanish interior ministers today shot down a German proposal to set up transit camps in North Africa that would process asylum seekers before they reach Europe.

Seeking stronger European co-ordination in the fight against terrorism and illegal immigration, interior ministers from Italy, France, Germany, Britain and Spain were wrapping up informal talks today at a Florentine villa.

EUROPEAN Union leaders clashed yesterday over a plan to set up camps in North Africa to process immigrants and asylum seekers to help stop the flow of illegal migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.

EU leaders clashed today over a plan to set up camps in North Africa to process immigrants and asylum seekers to help stop the flow of illegal migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.

European Union officials reacted cautiously to a proposal to set up immigrant processing camps outside EU borders, possibly in Libya or Ukraine.

BUILDING camps in African and other countries to hold would-be asylum seekers before they could reach Europe appeared to be gaining support from EU Justice Ministers meeting in The Hague yesterday.

In a meeting chaired by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, EU nations agreed today on joint rules for dealing with asylum seekers to keep illegal immigrants out while guaranteeing essential rights for genuine refugees.

The EU was under pressure today to convene high-level security talks in the wake of the Spanish bombings to assess what additional anti-terrorism measures to take.

France today called for an urgent meeting of European Union foreign ministers, saying it was crucial for the EU to react to the attacks against Madrid with vigilance and unity.

The Government is reportedly considering the possibility of calling an emergency EU summit to discuss the suspected involvement of Islamic militants in last week’s bomb attacks in Madrid.

Germany's top security official, Otto Schily, has said Bertie Ahern must call an immediate meeting of EU ministers to discuss security measures following the Madrid bombings.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell clashed with the United Nations refugee Agency chief yesterday over the EU’s proposed treatment of asylum seekers.

Hamburg officials were today accused of overreacting when they placed a ring of steel around a German military hospital after being told of a terror threat.

ITALIAN prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, facing a German tourism boycott that would cost his country millions of pounds, yesterday came under fire from one of his closest political allies.

GERMAN leader Gerhard Schroeder has cancelled his Italian summer holiday after a Rome minister labelled German tourists “hyper-nationalistic blondes”.

Italy was tonight braced for a German summer boycott after Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder cancelled his holiday in pique over an attack on his countrymen abroad.

FIVE al-Qaida suspects were handed over to US authorities and flown out of Pakistan yesterday.

GERMAN police said yesterday they had arrested a 24-year-old Turkish national in possession of explosives, and a newspaper reported he was suspected of planning an attack on US installations.

An expelled student who went on a shooting rampage at his former school, had frequent run-ins with teachers and his parents.

Tunisia acknowledged that a deadly gas truck explosion near a historic synagogue was caused by a criminal act.

Germany has for the first time raised the possibility that a truck bombing at a Tunisian synagogue that killed 16 people was an al-Qaida terrorist attack.

A Saudi man who apparently holds a student pilot’s licence has been arrested in Missouri on a bank fraud charge as America’s post-terror attacks investigation pressed ahead.

EU ministers will discuss next month a German proposal to create a European riot police corps to protect high-level meetings from anti-globalisation protesters.

The interior ministers of Germany and France want an urgent meeting with their colleagues across the EU to discuss how to prevent a repeat of the rioting that marred this weekend’s European summit in Sweden.