Italy on Sunday urged its European partners to share the burden of the thousands of migrants reaching its shores from North Africa during the region's upheavals, but key German officials rejected the request for help.

"Italy has to resolve its refugee problem on its own," German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told daily Welt's Monday edition.
Rome's newly stated policy of issuing visas to migrants from North Africa amounts to a violation of the European Union's Schengen rules for visa-free travel across most of the bloc, Friedrich was quoted as saying. He vowed to bring up the issue at an EU interior minister meeting starting in Luxembourg on Monday.
German state interior minister Joachim Herrmann also criticized Italy's new migration policy and threatened to reinstate border controls to keep the migrants at bay — despite Europe's Schengen agreement.
Herrmann of Bavaria state, which borders Austria and is a possible transit route to northern Europe from Italy, was quoted in Welt's Sunday edition as saying that Italy "has to deal with its immigration problem itself and may not dump it on other EU countries."
But Italy's foreign minister insisted that the influx of illegal immigrants from northern Africa, which has brought 20,000 Tunisians to Italy's shores in recent weeks, is indeed a European problem.
"We want to tell Europe that economic contributions are not enough, political action is necessary," Franco Frattini said on Sunday, defending the decision to issue temporary permits in comments he made on Sky Italia.
Meanwhile, illegal immigrants kept arriving at Lampedusa island, with a boat carrying 50 people arriving at midday Sunday. Italian police also have spotted two more boats on their way, carrying a total of about 300 people, he said.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday asked Germany, France and the rest of Europe to show solidarity with Italy in accepting migrants or risk calling into question the whole idea of the European Union.
France has promised to honour the temporary residency documents Rome plans to issue to Tunisians, but insisted they must prove they could financially support themselves in France — a condition many of them are unlikely to be able to meet.
Germany officials insist that Italy and Malta must deal with the refugee crisis on their own.
In a small gesture of solidarity, however, Germany's Interior Ministry said Friday that Berlin is offering to take in 100 North African refugees who are currently on Malta.

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