The centre-right party headed by foreign minister Sebastian Kurz has won Austria's national election, putting the 31-year old on track to become Europe's youngest leader, the country's interior ministry said.

Austrian foreign minister Sebastian Kurz has urged his Italian counterpart not to allow migrants arriving by boat to Italy's islands to travel on to the mainland, declaring that "being saved in the Mediterranean cannot be connected with a ticket to Central Europe".

The house where Adolf Hitler was born will be torn down and replaced with a new building that has no association with the Nazi dictator, Austria's government has announced.

Austria's interior minister has asked the government to postpone repeat presidential elections because of faulty absentee ballot envelopes, effectively cancelling a vote planned for next month.