The European Union must consider putting financial pressure on member states that are reluctant to take in their share of asylum seekers as the bloc faces its worst refugee crisis in decades, Germany's interior minister said on Tuesday.

In a veiled threat to eastern European states that have resisted EU plans on sharing refugees, Thomas de Maiziere said these were the same countries that received development funding from the bloc.

De Maiziere said the EU was still some way from agreeing long-term quotas for refugees.

"So I think we must talk about ways of exerting pressure," he told ZDF television, adding that some of the countries that opposed quotas were the beneficiaries of EU structural funds.

De Maiziere said he was sticking to his forecast that 800,000 refugees would arrive in Germany this year, despite some senior politicians saying there could be as many as 1 million new arrivals.

"I don't want to change the forecast," said de Maiziere.

After opening its doors to refugees from Syria's civil war, Germany at the weekend temporarily reimposed border controls, causing other countries along the refugees' march northwards through Europe to do the same and casting into doubt the EU's Schengen system of passport-free travel within the bloc.

Police said more than 4,500 asylum seekers reached Germany by train on Monday despite the imposition of new controls at the border with Austria.

The arrivals brought the number of asylum seekers who have entered Germany by train since the start of the month to nearly 92,000.

Government spokesmen have said that temporary border controls do not mean the borders are closed, but will allow refugees to be processed in a more orderly fashion.

The refugee crisis has boosted support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a right-wing party that backs a tough line on immigration, to its highest level in nearly four months, an opinion poll showed on Tuesday.

The INSA poll for German daily Bild showed support for the AfD at 5.5 percent, its highest level since late May.

Support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc slipping 1.5 points to 40 percent, still the strongest party by far, but its lowest reading since late June.

"The refugee crisis is pulling the conservatives down and pushing the AfD over the 5 percent threshold," INSA head Hermann Binkert told Bild. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie