imageBRUSSELS: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday urged the EU consider a no-fly zone and safe haven area in Syria during talks to address Europe's spiralling migrant crisis.

Speaking after the discussions in Brussels, Erdogan said Turkey was bearing the brunt of the crisis and pressed the bloc to act against "state-sponsored terrorism" in its war-torn neighbour.

The European Union, meanwhile, said Turkey must do more to stop the flow of hundreds of thousands of refugees who have landed on its shores in the worst such crisis since World War II.

"It is indisputable that Europe has to manage its borders better. We expect Turkey to do the same," EU President Donald Tusk told reporters.

Turkey has become a key smuggling route for thousands of migrants seeking a better life in the EU -- some 630,000 people have entered the bloc illegally this year -- many of them fleeing conflict in Syria and Afghanistan.

Most are headed for the wealthier countries of northern Europe and Germany, which has welcomed the refugees, now predicts it could receive up to 1.5 million asylum seekers in 2015.

Thousands took to the streets of the eastern city of Dresden late Monday, accusing Chancellor Angela Merkel of "crimes against the German people" and "treason".

"It won't stop with 1.5 or two million," said Lutz Bachmann, co-founder of the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement that organised the march.

"They will have their wives come, and one, two, three children. It is an impossible task to integrate these people," he told the protesters.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2015

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